Review: Odd One Out by Nic Stone

From the author of Dear Martin comes this exploration of old friendships, new crushes, and the path to self-discovery.

Courtney "Coop" Cooper

Dumped. Again. And normally I wouldn't mind. But right now, my best friend and source of solace, Jupiter Sanchez, is ignoring me to text some girl. 

Rae Evelyn Chin

I assumed "new girl" would be synonymous with "pariah," but Jupiter and Courtney make me feel like I'm right where I belong. I also want to kiss him. And her. Which is . . . perplexing.

Jupiter Charity-Sanchez

The only thing worse than losing the girl you love to a boy is losing her to your boy. That means losing him, too. I have to make a move. . . .

One story.

Three sides.

No easy answers.

Review: This book was definitely a bit of a slow burn. I loved how we got to know the characters straight away in terms of their personalities and the way that they interact with one another but their feelings and their deeper thoughts and secrets don't get revealed until the book progresses. I absolutely loved this writer's last book and so this one had a lot to live up to. It definitely met those expectations but I'm a very different way which I was grateful for! 

I like the fact that Jupiter and Cooper's relationship is one of friends but that he still admits to her being an attractive girl right from the off. I hate when relationships are unrealistic in novels in this one was certainly realistic. Both characters are somewhat self-obsessed, which is to be expected, they're teenagers, but if that is something that puts you off in novels, then be warned! I think I preferred Cooper and his storyline to Jupiter's.

Rae is a character who comes in to really shake things up but I don't think that she realises this and so I immediately had sympathy with her. I liked her and I liked the way she developed a friendship with both of our main characters here but sometimes her choices were not the best ones to make. 

I think that this book is realistic. I love the fact that it deals with that fact that people aren't always just straight or just gay and the stigma that comes with not being just one of these things. This book shows how people within in the LGBTQ+ community aren't always accepting of bisexuality or indeed anything other than Gay or lesbian. I could definitely picture this story playing out in real life and I enjoyed spending time with these characters-I definitely recommend it. 

To  order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

Review: The Flight of Cornelia Blackwood by Susan Elliot Wright

Cornelia Blackwood is about to do something very wrong, for reason she believes to be right.

She has a loving marriage but she has no friends. 

Everyone knows Cornelia's name but no one will speak to her now.

Cornelia has unraveled once before. What could possibly happen to her next?

An urgent and important novel of love, loss, tragedy and daring to hope again.

Review: Oh my goodness this was such an amazing book but so hard to talk about without giving any spoilers! It literally gripped me so much that I read it in six hours without stopping and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. It was definitely a slow burn of a plot line in that I could not predict in anyway where it was going. I didn't know how it was going to end until the actual last sentence and I loved that! 

Leah was a great man in character because you know she has been through some things and so she gets your sympathy right away. The more you learn about her life, the more you worry for her and yet want things to work out for her at the same time. There are a few supporting characters who come in and out of the novel, Leah's husband Adrian and his father Paul but this book really is all about Leah. 

There are quite a few strong themes running through the book and this novels does definitely come with care warnings for baby loss and probably recent grief as well but if you're ok with those then you are going to love this absolute page turner. I did wonder initially what the relevance of the bird on the cover was but all becomes clear once you get into the finale of this novel and now I am VERY suspicious of the crows that I see. I cried, I gasped, I was utterly gripped, could I ask for anything more? I highly recommend this novel! 

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

Guest Review: Lavender Bay Series by Sarah Bennett

A season for change…?

Beth Reynolds loved growing up close to Eleanor’s Emporium – a bric-a-brac shop full of wonders on Lavender Bay. Devastated to learn that Eleanor has died, she returns home from London immediately and is shocked to discover that the elderly lady has left the shop to her!

Vowing to restore it to its former glory, she only intends to stay until the end of the season. Although the longer she spends in the colourful seaside town, the more she falls back in love with everything she left behind…and quite possibly, with her best friend Eliza’s older brother, local chef Sam Barnes!

Why didn’t she notice he was quite this gorgeous before? And will their spring fling be enough to convince her to stay?

Don’t miss Spring at Lavender Bay, the first book in the enchanting Lavender Bay trilogy! 

Book 1: Spring at Lavender Bay

Book 2: Summer at Lavender Bay

Book 3: Snowflakes at Lavender Bay

Review: This trilogy of stories set in Lavender Bay, a small coastal town, includes Spring at Lavender Bay, Summer at Lavender Bay and Snowflakes at Lavender Bay. Although the stories are intertwined, each could be read as a stand-alone. However, the way in which they are written often gives an interesting alternative perspective to a specific event in each story, adding to the overall enjoyment of the series. I read and loved Sarah Bennett’s last trilogy, set in Butterfly Cove, and so was not surprised to find myself hooked by these stories as well.

The storylines involve three girls who grew up together in Lavender Bay, each becoming the central character in one of the books. All were named Elizabeth at birth, but to help distinguish between them, particularly at school, they chose to become Beth, Libby and Eliza. Both Eliza and Beth have left the town, but are returning for their own different reasons, while Libby has lived there all her life, helping now to run her father’s fish and chip shop, but with her own dreams for the future. We follow all three main characters as they establish what they really want out of life and find romance along the way.

I found myself really immersed in these stories, enjoying watching things develop for the three girls and becoming more and more familiar with the charming little seaside town of Lavender Bay and its environs. It sounds a really delightful place to visit, with its seafront shops, the friendly pub and restaurant and the lavender farm not far out of town. The stories are brimming full of entertaining and likeable characters, most of whom appear in all three books. I can really recommend this series; any one of the books could be enjoyed on its own, but why not read them all in order? It will be worth it. 

Click here to order book 1

Click here to order book 2

Click here to order book 3

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten New To Me Authors I Read in 2018 15/1/19

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Oh my goodness I love doing this list so much because it makes me feel glad to have discovered all of these new authors. I love the fact that we cover the fact that they are new to me because you might have read all of their books or they might be new to be because they are debut authors. Just wonderful either way! I can't list all of them unfortunately and I'm not going to list people who have written memoirs for no reason other than to narrow down the list! (I've ended up with 20, just 'cos)

Bout of Books 24 Day 7 Update and Wrap Up

So here's my wrap up for Bout of Books 24! I was an expert this time around again so I have been trying to comment on people's blog posts and tweets and instagram pics but its hard to remember all the time! I took part in both twitter chats, every blog challenge and also every bookstagram challenge-yey!

I read 12 whole books and 1 part book (I finished an audiobook I started last week). 2 of those books were graphic novels, 5 of those books were picture books. 4 of the complete novels were young adult and one was adult. 3 of the books I finished were audiobook, 3 were ebooks and the rest were audiobooks. Page number stats are all below!

Today's Reading

Today I read Words We Don't Say by KJ Reilly since this was a book from my original TBR that I felt like I could read today. This was the only day I didn't listen to any audiobook at all. I am ready to start a new one next week now!

279 pages

The Books

So here's a summary of what I read this week with page count and a final total...

128 pages

128 pages

320 pages

144 pages (my only part book this week)

32 pages

36 pages

32 pages

32 pages

16 pages

368 pages

400 pages

384 pages

279 pages

Pages Read Today:  279

Pages Read This Week: 2299

Complete Books Finished: 12

Part Books Finished: 1

I love Bout of Books and will definitely be joining in next time-will you?

Bout of Books 24 Day 6 Update and Day 7 Challenge

I finally finished some of the books I was reading-yey! I had a day completely in the house. I did have to catch up and film a couple of videos but I finished 3 books today so it was a good day. Now though I'm in the position of having to choose a new book to pick up for the last day-today's challenge will help I'm sure!

Today's Challenge

Today Bout of Books wants us to stretch or revise our goals. Personally I have NOT stuck to my TBR by any stretch of the imagination so maybe I should read something off there to end the week? Maybe? What do you think?

The Books

I listened to the final third of evermore by Sara Holland-121 pages!

 And I read the last 40% of Happy Girl Lucky by Holly Smale-so good! 160 pages

 And I read the whole of this book. The Flight of Cornelia Blackwood comes out in the UK on February 21st but the audiobook is out now-why didn't I download the audio? It is 384 pages and it was AMAZING!

Pages Read Today:  665

Pages Read This Week: 2046

Complete Books Finished: 11

Part Books Finished: 1

Movie Reviews: January 6th-12th

Another Sunday, another lot of movie reviews. As always, I go into more detailed thoughts on my movie reviews video over on my BookTube channel which I will leave at the bottom of this post once it is live so if you want a little more detail, give that a watch please and thank you!

I made a book vs movie video about this one on my channel so go and give that a watch if you want to hear the comparison. I really enjoyed this one and I can see why it got all the nominations it did. Its quite a difficult watch at time but a quiet film and one that will leave you thinking!

This was a classic romcom that I really enjoyed. It's set in New York but doesn't just show Manhattan which is great. It also has women talking about their careers and family and not just men! If you're into romcoms like I am, you'll love this!