Review: The 12 Days of Dash and Lily by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Dash and Lily have been dating for nearly a year, but when Lily’s beloved grandfather falls ill, the repercussions take their toll on everyone. Even though they are still together, somehow the magic has gone out of their relationship and it’s clear that Lily has fallen out of love with life.

Action must be taken! Dash teams up with Lily’s brother and a host of their friends, who have just twelve days to get Lily’s groove back in time for Christmas.

Review: Obviously this book is a sequel and so it is going to be hard to read without giving away any spoilers, but since the blurb of this book plainly states that Dash and Lily have been dating for nearly a year, I know I can mention that at least. For starters I have to say that it was wonderful being back in the world of Dash and Lily again. I read the two books fairly close together and would really recommend re-reading the first book in this duology before reading this one, it'll be great fun, i promise!

One of the things I loved about the first book in this series was the description of New York City. I loved being in the city with Dash and Lily and this book has exactly the same quality. Because of the wonderful writing, you can totally picture yourself wandering around Manhattan with these two, wishing that you were hanging out with them in The Strand bookstore and I think that was why I loved being back in their world so much. 

These authors have also been very clever when it comes to the character development. These two characters were so popular from their first outing, it would have been a safe choice to keep them the same and just have them go about the same kind of adventure once more. But people change. Especially people who are in the formative stages of their lives, and I loved seeing how much these characters had changed and grown. This brought up conflict in both of their lives and so made for a more interesting story and that was great, but I still love both of them!

This is definitely one of those books where you have to have read the first book in order to understand this sequel, there is just no getting around it. I really don't think that would be a problem though because both of the books in this series are wonderful reads and I'm sure that reading the two back to back would be a wonderful experience for you. I loved both these books and would definitely recommend picking up this one immediately!

To order your copy now, click here!

Guest Review: The Kamikaze Hunters-Fighting For The Pacific 1945 by Will Iredale

I've got a new series of reviews coming up on the blog over the next few weeks. These reviews will be on historical or sporting non-fiction reads. This isn't something I would necessarily read myself but something my Dad is really into and so he has reviewed some of his recent reads for the blog in case we have any readers with a keen interest in either of these areas. This is the first review and look out for weekend posts coming up with a similar theme. Enjoy!

In May 1945, with victory in Europe established, the war was all but over. But on the other side of the world, the Allies were still engaged in a bitter struggle to control the Pacific. And it was then that the Japanese unleashed a terrible new form of warfare: the suicide pilots, or Kamikaze.

Drawing on meticulous research and unique personal access to the remaining survivors, Will Iredale follows a group of young men from the moment they joined up through their initial training to the terrifying reality of fighting against pilots who, in the cruel last summer of the war, chose death rather than risk their country's dishonourable defeat and deliberately flew their planes into Allied aircraft carriers. A story of courage, valour and dogged determination, The Kamikaze Hunters is a gripping account of how a few brave young men helped to ensure lasting peace.

  

Review: This book is a factual account of the little-known exploits of the airmen of the Fleet Air Arm who flew with the British Pacific Fleet during 1945 until the end of hostilities in August of that year.

I was drawn to the book because my father served as a radar officer on an escort carrier in the British Pacific Fleet. It is an insightful addition to the bibliography of a relatively little-known aspect of the war in the Pacific. In fact, so few people are aware of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth's contribution to the naval war in the Far East that the British Pacific Fleet is often dubbed the "Forgotten Fleet".

Although the title suggests the main focus is on the Pacific campaign, the history of naval aviation together with the recruitment and training of the aircrew who fought in the skies over the Pacific and Japan are covered. Indeed, it is not until nearly halfway through the book that the creation and embarkation of the British Pacific Fleet is described.

The author, Will Iredale is a former journalist and the book is written in a journalistic language. Although not suitable for all of the sections, the style does lend extra drama to the accounts of the air strikes carried out by the young aircrew of the British Pacific Fleet and the deadly kamikaze attacks launched against the fleet's ships, in which the Japanese pilots dived their aircraft directly into the ships.

The book is based largely on interviews with survivors of the conflict and personal letters and diaries, together with research of official archives. As such, the account concentrates rather narrowly on a relatively small group of individuals and, in my view, would have benefited from a broader approach. Hence, the book focuses almost exclusively on the larger fleet aircraft carriers and it is not until the final chapter that that the smaller escort carriers are mentioned, and then none by name. In addition, I cannot agree with Will Iredale's description of First Sea Lord Sir Andrew Cunningham as a "pen pusher in London" when the latter had served in the front line during the First World War as a destroyer captain and, for much of the Second World War, was Commander-In-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. In this capacity, he had ordered the strike against the Italian fleet at Taranto, the first all-aircraft naval attack in history, which is mentioned in some of the early chapters of the book.

However, these are minor detractions and for the most part, I found the book an enjoyable and gripping read and an important contribution to the limited bibliography about the "Forgotten Fleet".

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

Books I decided not to review recently...

There's such a stigma around not finishing (or in the blogging community no reviewing) books isn't there? People think that if you decide not to finish a book you aren't a good reader. Or it means that the book is bad. Or even that you're saying something awful about the author by not finishing it. Well I would really love if these views did not exist.

There have been a few books I haven't finished recently or have managed to get to the end but decided not to review but that doesn't mean that you might not like them. So I would like to highlight a few books I have passed on or decided not to do a full review of and I would like to say a little about each in case they really sound like your kind of thing. Now please be gentle with me because quite a few of these have been really well received by just about everyone else, so here we go...

I listened to the whole of this one and I loved the setting and the premise behind it. I think tat if you are someone looking for work in these difficult times then this will definitely resonate with you and if you love books about food and restaurants then you will appreciate this one. I didn't feel like the storyline went anywhere though and so that's why I decided not to leave a review. This book also made me worry I think perhaps in a 'children have so much potential' teacher way but this book wasn't for me. 

I really enjoyed the start of this book and it was definitely realistic of how people in neighbourhoods can gossip and point fingers. I really loved the fact that the book is predominantly from the point of view of two little girls as well, that definitely made the book feel less serious even though it is dealing with a serious issue. I could picture the time and setting but I just found my mind wandering whilst I was reading it. I'm not great with books set more than a couple of decades ago and so that's maybe why it just didn't pull me in but I ended up putting this book down after reading about 200 pages. Lots of other people loved it though and it is held with great literary esteem!

This was a collection of short stories and from the co-founder of We Need Diverse Books and so I was so sure I would love this one. Perhaps I went in with too high expectations. The great thing was that because it was short stories, I could read some of them and leave others that didn't grab me. I don't really have a full explanation of why some stories didn't grab me but I ended up leaving more than I read. If you are looking for diverse stories to dip in and out of then definitely give this one a go, I think maybe it just came along at the wrong time for me...

This book is a similar story. It is short stories about difficult women and the difficulties women have as well. I love this author and what she does and so I was so sure I was going to love it. I even had this one shipped over from the UK! But again some of the stories I loved and some I just couldn't finish. This could be the time that I was reading it and I would definitely still recommend someone picking it up but I think I'm going to leave this on my shelf for a little while longer, reading the stories one at a time and therefore I won't be writing a review for this one.

This one might be a little controversial, but I didn't like this read as much as I thought I was going to. I decided to do a bit of comparison between this and Carrie Fishers other memoir style books because I just didn't think that this one matched up as well to the others. I read this back to back with wishful drinking and I just feel like I got so much more insight into her life and her personality in that other book than I did with this one. To be honest I think that the whole selling point of this one were the chapters on Harrison Ford and this is just about all of the book. I wasn't as interested in that as I was in her but if you want to read about that then this book would definitely be for you!

Blog Tour: #25in25 25 Facts to Celebrate the Release of Lesley Pearse's 25th Novel The Woman in the Wood

Welcome to the Woman in The Wood Secret Facts Blog Tour. We're all sharing facts from Lesley to celebrate the publication of her latest novel The Woman in the Wood, released in the UK on 29th June.

Here's what it's all about:

Fifteen-year-old twins Maisy and Duncan Mitcham have always had each other. Until the fateful day in the wood . . .

One night in 1960, the twins awake to find their father pulling their screaming mother from the house. She is to be committed to an asylum. It is, so their father insists, for her own good.

It's not long before they, too, are removed from their London home and sent to Nightingales - a large house deep in the New Forest countryside - to be watched over by their cold-hearted grandmother, Mrs Mitcham. Though they feel abandoned and unloved, at least here they have something they never had before - freedom.

The twins are left to their own devices, to explore, find new friends and first romances. That is until the day that Duncan doesn't come back for dinner. Nor does he return the next day. Or the one after that.

When the bodies of other young boys are discovered in the surrounding area the police appear to give up hope of finding Duncan alive. With Mrs Mitcham showing little interest in her grandson's disappearance, it is up to Maisy to discover the truth. And she knows just where to start. The woman who lives alone in the wood about whom so many rumours abound. A woman named Grace Deville.

My fact is about Lesley’s second novel, Tara, which was first published in 1994:

Tara: It was said by a journalist that my hero Harry Collins was the best male character since Rhett Butler.

#LoveLesley

Thanks for that fun fact Lesley and congratulations on your new novel!

Don't forget to drop by the other stops on the tour for even more facts from Lesley and other exclusive content!

Review: The One With The White Wedding (Bridesmaids Part 4) by Erin Lawless

This is the fourth part in a four part series and so there may be spoilers for the previous 3 parts in the blurb or in my review. I've tried super hard to keep them out but you have been warned!

Nora Dervan is ready for her Happy Ever After. With her darling Harry waiting at the altar, and all her family and friends around her. She is certain that her special day will not be forgotten/will be one to remember…

But with her four bridesmaids hiding more secrets, than bottles of champagne. Will her big day be remembered for all the right reasons?

Bea has barely gotten past the fact that her two best friends are dating, and now they’re engaged, whilst cupid’s arrow points in a forbidden direction for Cleo. She is so distracted by her off limits, hot new colleague that she has forgotten Daisy, who has been left dreading the singles table. There’s more romance in the cheesy pick- up lines than Sarah’s own marriage, which hasn’t turned out as she hoped it would be.

Review: I love the characters from this series and so I was so excited to re-join them for one last story and find out just how the story ends for all of them. Obviously we have all the usual characters there. We have Sarah and Cole who are wonderful in this instalment, I really feel like they come into their own as they cope with the things being thrown at them by this terrific author. Then we have bride to be Nora and Fiancee Harry. I just love how chilled out these two are and I feel privileged to be invited to their wedding. 

Then there's Daisy. Again I feel like she really grows up a lot in this particular installment. She is pure comedy value up until now and the voice of fun, and she's by no means a downer this time around but she reveals a softer side to herself, bridesmaids duty can do that to a person! And finally, my favourites Cleo and Gray. I love these two (and not just because they are fellow teachers) I don't feel like the focus is as much on either of them in the beginning of this episode, you have to wait until the end to get any answers about what the future hold for those two! There are also obviously other family members in this installment, because it is the one with the wedding and there are some obvious funny family wedding moments, but mostly this book focuses on our bride and her bridesmaids and I loved that about it. 

This series is so realistic about what it is like to be part of a female friendship group and what it can be like leading up to a wedding for all of those people involved in that wedding and that's something that I love about Erin Lawless's writing. Like a good observational comic, she goes witch what can really go wrong and right for people in real life and then combines it all with witty anecdotes from others and curve balls thrown at her characters. This book made me laugh, it made me cry, and that goes for the whole series, not just this installment. I loved every moment of this series and between episodes, the characters stayed with me. I would have loved an epilogue to find out where they all are now, but I'm hoping that no epilogue means that we're going to hear from some of them again in the future! 

If you haven't already read this series, you're in luck! You don't have to wait for any more episodes to come out, they are all there to gorge upon and have the same laughs and emotions that I did reading this, or you can buy the whole book in bulk-go forth and enjoy in engagement and hen party and wedding capers!

Click here to buy the series now!

Bridesmaids Ep 1

Bridesmaids Ep 2

Bridesmaids Ep 3

Bridesmaids Ep 4

The One With All the Bridesmaids. (out on 21st July)

Greatest Hits by Laura Barnett

One day. Sixteen songs. The soundtrack of a lifetime...

Alone in her studio, Cass Wheeler is taking a journey back into her past. After a silence of ten years, the singer-songwriter is picking the sixteen tracks that have defined her - sixteen key moments in her life - for a uniquely personal Greatest Hits album.

In the course of this one day, both ordinary and extraordinary, the story of Cass's life emerges - a story of highs and lows, of music, friendship and ambition, of great love and great loss. But what prompted her to retreat all those years ago, and is there a way for her to make peace with her past?

Daughter. Mother. Singer. Lover. What are the memories that mean the most?

Review: This book was long but enjoyable. It took me a while to get through but that it simply because there is so much detail to it. We are taken back through time as Cass relives moments from her past as far back as when she was a young child. This book is interspersed with songs that Cass has written in her career as a singer and we see her in present day and then we revisit a memory from her past. I read a paperback proof of this novel and found it very easy to keep track of what time of her life we are in, whether it is present day or a flashback. I think my favourite moments were moments from her childhood because we get to see what has made her what she is today. I really liked the structure of this novel, although I think it would work best read in physical form so that it is easy to see what era you are in and also easier to flick back and revisit something that links with what you are reading now. 

I didn't necessarily warm to Cass as a character in her present day persona, I think this may be why I enjoyed the childhood sections of the book more. This is possibly because she is a star and so naturally quite introverted and selfish. This didn't mean that I didn't find her fascinating though. I really enjoyed getting to know her as a character and seeing her interact with others over the years. She didn't really grow on me as the book went on but I didn't strongly dislike her either. I just found her difficult to warm to. 

There are other characters in this novel too but none of them have as high a profile as Cass. I found some of the friends/managers/band members slightly difficult to keep track off, I think this was possibly because they really didn't have as much character development as the main character in this instance because this is very much a book about Cass and about her life. I enjoyed the insight into the music industry that this gave me and loved the fact that the chapters are interwoven with her music. As I say this was a long read so make sure you allow yourself plenty of time to get through this and I would recommend picking this up in hardback because you will want to revisit parts from Cass's past as you get to know her future. I enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend this if you are looking for something to get your teeth into. 

To get your copy now, click the link! UK or US

Review: Not Working by Lisa Owens

Now and again we all lie awake wondering what on earth we're doing with our lives . . . don't we? Claire Flannery has had more than a few sleepless nights lately. Maybe she shouldn't have walked out of her job with no idea what to do next. Maybe she should think before she speaks -- and maybe then her mother would start returning her calls. Maybe she should be spending more time going to art galleries, or reading up on current affairs, and less time in her pyjamas, entering competitions on the internet. Then again, maybe the perfect solution to life's problems only arises when you stop looking for it . . .

Review: This was an interesting read for me. Its definitely not exactly what I was expecting it to be. I was initially drawn in by the cover, you know I love a good coffee cup, and then by the title. I too am currently not working. Then I read the premise and the early praise his novel and thought, yes I will definitely like this but it didn't quite meet my expectations... A have heard a lot of people talking about the way the book is structured. Its not traditional prose and yet it isn't written in verse either. This book is written in little snippets of thought, kind of like a stream of consciousness, however each section has a heading so you know what each part is going to concern. Each section can range from one small paragraph to a few pages. I would like to be controversial and say that I liked this structure. It did make the story harder to follow but I feel like it made me identify with the character more. I felt a little like I was reading Tumblr posts or facebook updates and it really stuck a chord with me. 

Although I did feel like I could identify with the character more because of this structure, I didn't necessarily warm to her that easily. Obviously this character has chosen to leave her job, a move which I made too so I can feel what she is going through. She is also in a long term relationship and so is in the position of being the one at home while her partner goes off to work. I did think that she was somewhat self-centred though and so I found her difficult to like for those reasons. I did definitely agree with her reasons for doing most things but struggled to side with her on all things. 

There are is a range of supporting characters in this novel too. I really disliked Claire's family and her partners family too. I thought them to be seriously backward and really couldn't believe the way they were behaving sometimes. This did create drama for the storyline but I'm not sure people can be so narrow minded in this day and age. I really liked Luke, he too felt real and so I found him easy to identify with. he is not perfect at every moment throughout this story, but for a sleep-deprived trainee medic, he had a lot of patience. 

Its quite hard to sum up my thoughts on this book. I liked the premise of the story and I enjoyed the way it was written. In terms of the story arc itself and the characters involved in the story, I wasn't entirely convince and so I would say that it was a mixed bag for me. I would really like to find out if the author intended there to be a follow up to this book and that is why the story arc is the way that it is. But my best advice to you is to read it for yourself, especially if you enjoy books about women in their twenties trying to find their way in life, and see for yourself!

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