Review for What I Did On My Holidays by Chrissie Manby

What I Did On My Holidays by Chrissie Manby 
Publisher: Hodder
Release Date: 21st June 2012
Genre: Chick-Lit, Fiction, Summer, Romance, Comedy
Rating: 4/5 stars
Source: Received from the publisher for review

Amazon Summary:
"Sophie Sturgeon can't wait for her annual summer holiday. Not only will it be a week away from work, it will be a chance to reconnect with her boyfriend Callum. So this upcoming trip to Majorca is a big deal. Sophie's spent a lot of time getting ready. She's bought a new wardrobe. She's been waxed to within an inch of her life. She's determined she and Callum will have the best time ever. Then Callum dumps her, the night before they're due to leave. In a show of bravery and independence, Sophie says she'll go to Majorca alone - but in fact, she hides in her London flat. But when her friends, family, and even Callum seem so surprised and delighted at her single girl courage, Sophie decides to go all out and recreate the ultimate 'fake break'...with hilarious results."

Review 
What I Did On My Holidays was right at the top of the list of books I want to read this summer. Despite never reading a book by Chrissie Manby before I’d heard what a fab writer she is and this book sounded so funny and uplifting that I was looking forward to reading it hugely and it certainly lived up to my expectations!

The book begins with our hilarious heroine Sophie looking forward to her annual summer holiday and this holiday in particular will be extra special as she plans to spend her thirtieth birthday celebrating in Majorca with long term boyfriend Callum. However as the hours pass before the plane takes off with no word from Callum Sophie starts to get slightly frantic and after several failed attempts to reach him he finally texts to let her know that he’s not going to be going to Majorca with her after all and worst of all dumps her hours before they’re meant to leave. Heartbroken and devastated with nobody who can accompany her on such short notice Sophie decides to stay at home and nurse her broken heart. But when her family and friends assume that she has gone ahead with her holiday alone and Callum gets wind of it he starts to regret the break-up and is impressed with Sophie’s new found independence. And so from her London flat, in the middle of a drizzly English summer, Sophie goes about trying to re-create the perfect holiday in Majorca in an all or nothing attempt to win Callum back.

What I Did On My Holidays was such a hilarious read. Sophie’s drastic attempts to live out an abroad holiday at home made for the wackiest staycation ever. Stealing pictures from the hotels website to send to her friends, checking club webcams to see what’s happening live, and even re-creating a beach scene in her garden with a whole lot of builders sand, Sophie does it all. Reading about Sophie’s staycation was the real highlight of the book for me and I’d find myself laughing out loud at just how far she was willing to go so as not to be found out. What I Did On My Holidays certainly celebrates the joys of having a holiday from home something which I’m sure a lot of people can relate to with more and more people having to cut back on their holidays with the recession.

Sophie was such a likeable, funny, heroine who I wanted the best for from the start. After being dumped so horribly at the beginning of the book she’s immediately endearing as a character and I was cheering her on throughout.

What I Did On My Holidays had everything I could want from a summer story. It was a feel good, light hearted, hilarious read that’s definitely made me want to check out Chrissie Manby’s other books. Whether you’re staying at home this summer, going on an English holiday, or going abroad this is a holiday read that can be enjoyed whatever the occasion and celebrates holidays of all shapes and sizes. Perfect to be read either by the pool with a cocktail or curled up on the couch with a cuppa this is a holiday book that has something to offer everyone.

Letterbox Love (6)

Letterbox Love is a new meme hosted by Lynsey @ Narratively Speaking for UK based book bloggers to showcase the books that they’ve received each week.

 Review Books 

The Demon's Lexicon (Book One) by Sarah Rees Brennan 
The Demon's Covenant (Book Two) by Sarah Rees Brennan 
The Demon's Surrender (Book Three) by Sarah Rees Brennan
When the lovely people at Simon & Schuster were pitching Sarah's new book to me and I mentioned that I hadn't had chance to read her first series they were all too eager to send the whole trilogy to me which was so unbelievably nice of them! I love the funky UK covers and have heard amazing things about this series so I'm looking forward to making a start on them and seeing what all the fuss is about!

Love at Second Sight by Cathy Hopkins This looks a little younger than I would usually read but the premise sounds absolutely adorable and the cover's so pretty so I'm excited to give this one a go! I loved Cathy's Mates, Dates series as a tween so I'm hoping to enjoy this one too!

Recipe For Love by Sasha Wagstaff This books cover you guys! It's so pretty but I don't think my picture quality does it justice! This sounds like such a gorgeous summer read with yummy food and sunshine to boot so I'm excited to read this sometime this summer!

Losing Lila by Sarah Alderson I've heard a lot of brilliant things for the first book in this series Hunting Lila and have it to be read so I'll be reading this series back to back sometime soon which I'm really looking forward to!

 Gifts 

Raising Demons (Hex Hall 2) by Rachel Hawkins 
Spellbound (Hex Hall 3) by Rachel Hawkins
These were sent to me as gifts from the lovely Leanna at Daisy Chain Book Reviews one of my favourite book blogs! When she found out that I haven't read this series yet she very kindly send me the last two books over (I already own the first one) This series sounds right up my street and now I have the whole trilogy I'll be making a start on them sometime soon! Thank you hun!

So those were all of the wonderful books I was lucky enough to be sent this week. As always HUGE thank you's to the lovely publishing people who have sent me these brilliant new titles this week especially to Simon & Schuster who all of my review books came from bar one, and of course to Leanna for being so generous! If you’ve read or are looking forward to any of the books I got feel free to let me know what you thought about them or request reviews and such in the comments. And if you decided to do a Letterbox Love, Book Haul, IMM, Showcase Sunday, Mailbox Monday or whatever else featuring the books you got this week leave me a link as I’d love to check out your books too! ^_^

 happy reading till next time folks!

Review for Fallen in Love by Lauren Kate

WARNING
This is a collection of short stories from the Fallen series and by talking about the plot there may be spoilers from the first three books in this series.

Fallen in Love by Lauren Kate
Publisher: Doubleday
Release Date: 2nd February 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, Angels, Short Stories 
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Source: Received from the publisher for review

Amazon Summary:
"Unexpected. Unrequited. Forbidden. Eternal. Everyone has their own love story.

And in a twist of fate, four extraordinary love stories combine over the course of a romantic Valentine's Day in Medieval England. Miles and Shelby find love where they least expect it. Roland learns a painful lesson about finding-and losing love. Arianne pays the price for a love so fierce it burns. And for the first -and last- time, Daniel and Luce will spend a night together like none other.

Lauren Kate's FALLEN IN LOVE is filled with love stories . . . the ones everyone has been waiting for."

Review 
I have to say that usually I’m not really a fan of short stories mainly because I find that they’re not long enough to get to know the characters and there’s not enough time for plot development but when I heard about Fallen in Love I figured I’d give it a go as those reasons are irrelevant with these four short stories as they centre around the characters of the Fallen world, a series that I love.

The book is set alongside the same timeline as Passion, the third book in this series, and takes place in Medieval England on Valentine’s Day as Luce and Co travel through the announcers.

There are four short stories centring around each characters Valentine’s Day giving us readers a chance to learn more about the secondary characters love lives unlike the rest of the series where the focus is mainly on Luce and Daniel.

The first story is Love Where You Least Expect It: The Valentine of Shelby and Miles where the friends blossom into something more whilst trying to help the Lucinda of the past have a romantic Valentine’s Day with Daniel. The second story is Love Lessons: The Valentine of Roland where we get to learn of the only woman Roland has ever loved a mortal girl who Roland loved and lost during this time period and revisits on this Valentine’s Day through an announcer. The third story is Burning Love: The Valentine of Arriane where we learn about Arriane’s great love with a demon girl named Tessriel and how being on opposing sides comes between them. And lastly for the grand finale we have the star couple in Endless Love: The Valentine of Daniel and Lucinda which is the story of the one and only Valentine’s Day that Luce and Daniel ever got to spend together.

Surprisingly my favourite stories where Roland’s and Arriane’s. Both of them have sad heart-breaking tales of lost love which shows a different side to them both as characters and made me feel like I got to know them a little better. I found Arriane’s story especially interesting as it gives us some insight as to why she refuses to be on Lucifer’s side and why she’s a total martyr for Luce and Daniels love. I have to say that I’ve never been a particular fan of Roland but after reading his story and what he selflessly does for his lost love my heart really went out to him and I like him a lot more now.

Fallen in Love doesn’t add anything hugely new to the main storyline of this series but what it does do is give a deeper insight into the lives and loves of the secondary characters. It’s a short, quick, romantic, read that gives a little extra something to the fans of the series and also makes a good refresher of Passion ready for the series finale in Rapture. Although I don’t see why it would strictly need to be read as part of the series it makes a good little in between books read that I’d recommend to fans of the series.

Review for The Gathering Dark by Leigh Bardugo

The Gathering Dark by Leigh Bardugo 
Publisher: Indigo
Release Date: 17th May 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Magic
Rating: 5/5 stars
Source: Received from the publisher for review

Amazon Summary:
"The Shadow Fold, a swathe of impenetrable darkness, crawling with monsters that feast on human flesh, is slowly destroying the once-great nation of Ravka.

Alina, a pale, lonely orphan, discovers a unique power that thrusts her into the lavish world of the kingdom's magical elite - the Grisha. Could she be the key to unravelling the dark fabric of the Shadow Fold and setting Ravka free?

The Darkling, a creature of seductive charm and terrifying power, leader of the Grisha. If Alina is to fulfil her destiny, she must discover how to unlock her gift and face up to her dangerous attraction to him.

But what of Mal, Alina's childhood best friend? As Alina contemplates her dazzling new future, why can't she ever quite forget him?

Glorious. Epic. Irresistible. Romance."

Review 
I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive to read this book simply because I literally have a love/hate relationship with the fantasy genre. I tend to either absolutely love a fantasy novel or loath it with no middle ground so I’m always anxious when starting a new fantasy book to see which category it falls under. I’d heard so much hype for this book in the US (US title Smoke and Bone) that I had high hopes for The Gathering Dark and I’m happy to say the hype is totally justified!

The reason I’m so picky with my fantasy is that I like to lose myself in a fantasy world from the start and so the book needs to immerse me in its culture. If the book doesn’t really go into the politics, names, and descriptions and I have to keep jarring myself out of the story to flick through and look it up then I give up on a book pretty quickly. For me it takes a talented storyteller indeed who can comfortably get me settled into their world and gives me enough information and description so that I can imagine the world with ease and can completely lose myself in their world without getting confused and having to constantly suss out the who’s who and what’s what in order to enjoy the book. I like to get sucked into a fantasy land smoothly and with effortlessness and Leigh Bardugo does that with the Kingdom of Ravka seamlessly.

Alina’s world is rich with detail and so well imagined. I loved the idea of having a magical elite in the Grisha with magicians who each have a speciality be it death, healing, fire, air, fabrics amongst numerous other things. I loved learning about the Grisha and their place in society. This book is a literal battle between light and dark as Alina discovers a power like no other Grisha that may be the key to saving Ravka from The Shadow Fold and restore the Kingdom to its former glory.

Alina is the perfect heroine she herself admits to being average in every way but as she learns about her new power she goes from being a normal girl to Ravka’s saviour and as the book goes on she makes a lot of tough calls and brave decisions and I totally respected her as our heroine.

My favourite kind of romance is when childhood friends grow into something more so Alina and Mals relationship was always going to be a winner for me. I fell for Mal pretty much from the start and only grew to love him more as the book continued. He’s charming, funny, and hugely likeable and his relationship with Alina was wonderful to read and watch develop.

The Darkling has to be the best villain I’ve come across in a long time you never quite know whether to trust him or not. He’s dangerous, seductive, and persuasive and I couldn’t help but be drawn to him along with Alina. I love when the bad guy has a good backstory and isn’t just bad for the sake of it but because he truly believes that what he’s doing is the right thing to do. The Darkling was powerful, charismatic, and fearsome and was everything I could hope for in a good villain.

I picked up this book purposefully because I was looking for a nice chunky book that could last me a while. Despite being a big book I read this in one night a rarity for me especially with a book of this size. I literally could not put it down and refused to part with it until I was finished in the early hours of the morning. The Gathering Dark held me captivated from start to finish and has to be my favourite book of 2012 so far. Even if fantasy’s not usually your thing I’d fully recommend giving this book a go. If you like books that transport you to richly imagined fantastical places, that introduces you to vibrant and warm characters, that has a gorgeous romance, and best of all an epic battle between good and evil then look no further. I loved every second spent with this book and thoroughly recommend it.

Review for Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson 
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release Date: 7th June 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Summer, Contemporary, Romance, Family, Friendship, Cancer, Grief
Rating: 4/5 stars
Source: Received from the publisher for review

Amazon Summary:
"Taylor Edwards family might not be that close - everyone is a little too busy and overscheduled, but for the most part, they get along just fine. Then Taylor's dad gets some devastating news, and her parents decide that the family will spend one last summer together at their old lake house in the Pocono Mountains. Crammed into a place much smaller than they are used to, they begin to get to know each other again, but as the summer progresses they're more aware than ever that they're battling a ticking clock. And as Taylor tries to deal with the drama at home, she is faced with the fact that the friends she thought she'd left behind haven't actually gone anywhere. Her former summer best friend is still living across the lake and still as mad with Taylor as she was five years ago, and her first boyfriend has moved in next door...but he's much cuter at seventeen than he was at twelve. Can one summer be enough time to get a second chance - with family, friends, and love?"

Review 
Amy and Rogers Epic Detour was one of my favourite summer reads of last year so I was really excited to hear that Morgan Matson was coming out with another summer read this time centring around a summer at a lake house, one family’s last summer together, and the importance of grabbing those all too rare second chances when life throws them to you.

If I had to sum up Second Chance Summer in one word it would be Bittersweet. The book is equally heart-breaking and equally filled with carefree blissful summer moments, Morgan Matson getting the balance just right. Taylor Edwards is spending her summer with her family in their old lake house; her days will be filled with ice creams at Jane’s, movie nights on the beach, and relaxing out on the lake, sounds perfect right? Well not really. Taylor’s dad has recently been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer and has been given only months left to live. It’s her dads wish that they spend one last summer together as a family so they spend the summer at the family lake house re-connecting, reliving old memories, and generally spending their last few months in each other’s company while they still can. If that wasn’t enough Taylor’s reluctant to go back to their old summer lake house not only because she knows by the end of summer she’ll be coming home without her dad but also because she didn’t part well with her old friend from childhood Lucy and her first boyfriend Henry the last time she was in town. But summer is a time when anything feels possible, will Taylor learn to face her fears and get a second chance before it’s too late?

I said it in my review for Amy and Roger and I’ll say it again here. Morgan’s writing reminds me SO much of reading a book by queen of summer stories Sarah Dessen. If you’re a fan of Sarah’s books you will love Morgan’s and vice versa. What they have in common is that they both have the perfect balance in their books of tackling a sensitive subject, in this books case cancer, and yet still pulling off a feel good summer read. They both have this gift of knowing just how far to push people’s emotions without the book feeling too heavy and when to add the fun summery goodness to lighten the mood. Morgan Matson has also included a cameo from Amy and Roger at the beginning of this book something that Sarah is famous for doing with her stories. The cameo was a nice little extra and brought a smile to my face.

Second Chance Summer is the kind of summer read that I love. There were moments where you could almost forget what Taylor was going through because she was so brave and lived by her dad’s wish that they have as normal and happy a summer for as long as possible. Then there would be a heart-breaking tender moment with her father that was so touching that I’m not ashamed to say I cried over on several occasions so much so that I’m surprised this book wasn’t a great big soggy heap of paper by the time I was finished with it. This book is the perfect mix of summer fun and heartbreak as you watch Taylor have this life changing summer and watch her grow as a person.

However I do have to say that as nice as Taylor and Henry were I didn’t come to love them as much as Amy and Roger but that’s just my personal preference although I had a lot of respect for Taylor and the way she handled her family situation. I did however fall in love with so many of the secondary characters particularly Taylor’s dad, Warren and Wendy and Lucy and Elliot. There were so many great characters to get to know and love and the community at the lake was a real highlight of the book for me.

Although I didn’t love Second Chance Summer quite as much as Amy and Rogers Epic Detour it was still a brilliant summer read that’s well worth checking out. A word of warning, you may want to read this one in privacy and don’t forget to read it with a big box of tissues!