My Summer Wrap-Up

20:40

I can say, with some self-proclaimed pride, that I am a master at consuming books at a significantly unhealthy rate. But I've reached a point in my life where reading is now considered a luxury, and reading more than four books a month is considered some almighty achievement. So, naturally, I am bloody proud that I got through these books over the last few months.

Exam season, naturally, interrupted my reading flow. I spent a couple of months just re-reading old favourites but I haven't included them in this post because a) I've only recently posted my reviews of them and b) it would make this post unnecessarily long. On that note, I think I'm taking a break from wrap-ups. As much as I love writing reviews for every book I read, it's simply not possible anymore, at least not in the foreseeable future while I finish up uni. But of course, I will still be uploading reviews for books that take my breath away; I couldn't leave you hanging dry waiting on worthy book recommendations now could I?

And if you're a crazy bookworm and you do want to keep up with what I'm reading throughout the months, you can always find me on my Goodreads page here or access my bookshelf via the Goodreads widget on the right hand side. Happy reading folks!

Goodnight Mister Tom

- by Michelle Magorian

My Goodreads Rating: 5.0/5.0 stars

If you live in the UK, you likely read Goodnight Mister Tom in Year 6, at the tender age of eleven, as your first "classic" book. It was definitely the first time my younger self was treated to the experience of literature. And I bloody loved it. I have such fond memories of reading it; I remember reading ahead at home (despite being specifically told not to because we were reading it as a class) but I was simply too emotionally invested in it; I remember watching the film after we finished reading/studying it and it tugged at my eleven-year old heartstrings; and I remember enjoying picking a book apart and appreciating its meaning. It's lived with me since. It has so many nostalgic memories attached to it and it's the stand-out part of my primary school life that instantly takes me back to a certain time and place in my childhood.

I've never picked it up since though. I guess because I've never had reason to and sometimes, it's like you almost don't want to re-visit a book in fear that memory places it at such a high pedestal yet re-experiencing it may make it drop like a ton of bricks and you will never see it in the same light again. But then I was browsing in Waterstones with my friend and my eyes fell on this beautiful little Puffin edition and I nearly screamed in excitement when I saw it because here was one of my childhood favourites wrapped up in a lovely cover with lovely pages on the inside. (Said friend gifted it to me for my birthday which now makes it mean so much more but I digress). I was ecstatic that I had it on my bookshelf.

It took me so long to get round to reading it though because I didn't want it to rob me of its sentiments. But when I finally did, I didn't realise how much I'd forgotten about the story and when I closed the last page, tears streaming down my face with a little bit of a broken heart and a little bit of bitter-sweet joy that only a book can give, I felt like I was experiencing it for the first time all over again. It is a story about lives that live beyond the war, that are only touched at the edges by world-changing events until one day it completely shatters them. It's the story of how this foreign concept of human destruction can be a distant truth that almost doesn't exist while life still goes on for the oblivious, lucky few - but how it inevitably hits home and sends everything up in dust and smoke. It is a story of how children perceive and survive the devastating consequences of fear, grief and death..how they are thrown into a world of chaos without knowing how they got there.

But here's what it's truly about: it is about a man who has nothing but finds everything when he takes a stranger into his home; it is about friendship and courage and bravery in the face of adversity; it is about second chances at life and finding hope at a time when the world has probably lost hope; it is about how much good there is still left in the world even when the world is at its worst; it is a tale of love and loss and a little boy who comes with nothing but discovers everything when he is taken into a stranger's home and it is beautiful and endearing in all the ways I appreciated once before and I can appreciate again. This book is so quietly powerful. It takes tragedy and gives it beauty and in doing so, it made me feel every beautiful, heart-warming, heart-breaking emotion that I felt when I first read it twelve years ago. It will always have a special place in my heart; I can only hope that you too pick it up and let it find a place in yours.

When Beauty Tamed the Beast

- by Eloisa James

My Goodreads Rating: 5.0/5.0 stars

I can't remember what possessed me to buy this book on a whim, but buy it I did and it was a delight. Wickedly seductive, hilariously witty and dangerously addictive, it is a retelling with all the makings of a fairytale romance and then some. Linnet, our heroine, is a feisty, yet endearing, smart, stunningly beautiful woman whose fate has been matched to that of Piers, a selfish, arrogant, downright cranky yet brilliant doctor who is every inch a beast in nature. Their not-a-relationship (engagement?) suffers the predicament of a Beast immune to his betrothed Beauty, and her resilience in finding a shred of humanity in his shrivelled up heart that has been burned more often than not. And so their unconventional love story unravels with a back-and-forth banter that is shamelessly entertaining and an undeniable chemistry between two people who simply abhor the presence of the other. It is a love story that will have you laughing against your will while playing with your heartstrings through to the very end. And beyond the irresistible romance, there's the unusual - albeit thoroughly engrossing - story line that keeps you hooked with a cast of eccentric characters that make this read a highly entertaining one. A refreshing - and arguably the best - take on Beauty and the Beast that could exist, and one that your teenage heart will swoon over the entire time.

Point of Retreat
SLAMMED #2

- by Colleen Hoover

My Goodreads Rating: 2.5/5.0 stars

Point of Retreat is the sequel to Colleen Hoover's Slammed - which I hated for the record (review here). The only reason I put myself through reading the next instalment is because I was forced to stand for the hour train commute home one evening and it was the only unread book I had on my Kindle so I figured a book I was likely to not like, would be better than no book at all.

I didn't rate Slammed because the writing came across as amateurish; I felt like I was reading something that I would have written in English class when I was thirteen. The "forbidden" relationship between teacher and student was poorly written and felt immature at best. There was simply too much angst and melodrama, and no substance. Point of Retreat is a continuation of their relationship and is, I'm disappointed to admit, of a similar nature. I expected there to be at least some character growth and a little bit of gained maturity, if not by Will - who was the only redeeming factor in Slammed - then at least by Lake, but I found her to be just as juvenile as she was in Slammed. At risk of sounding like a broken record, there was no depth to the relationship, no plot to hold up the story, and a whole lot of unnecessary drama that was thrown in there to shift it along. The only redeeming qualities of the sequel was a) the poetry was (slightly) better than that we suffered through in book one, and b) the kids (i.e. the sassy eight year old neighbour who stole the show). The latter, my friends, should tell you all you need to know about the quality of this book/series.

Reboot // Rebel
REBOOT DUOLOGY

- by Amy Tintera

My Goodreads Rating: 3.0/5.0 stars

When Wren Connelly was shot three times in the chest, her heart stopped beating for 178 minutes. She came back as a Reboot; an upgrade of her human self with refined instincts, unnatural speed, and detached emotions. The more time spent dead, the less human the Reboot. Wren 178 is the deadliest Reboot in the Republic of Texas. A soldier for the Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation (HARC), she is expected to ruthlessly track down new Reboots before they can escape the new life that they will be forced into, and train them to become the lethal weapons that HARC want them to be. But her latest recruit is Callum 22 who may as well be human with his slow reflexes, his burning curiosity that has him asking too many questions, and an innate tendency to disobey. He is a walking disaster, and one that HARC want Wren to shut down. He has to be forced into line, or be eliminated. But Wren is drawn to this Reboot who is more human than monster, and who has her daring to break the rules. The perfect soldier is done taking orders.

This promised such an exciting, dark concept; a dystopian world where the dead come back to life in an emotionless, superhuman form to become loyal subjects for a corrupt regime hiding their real (disturbing) operation should have made a kickass read. It started off kickass, I'll give it that. Wren is all power and no emotion and it was easy to be pulled into her world of violence, all the while wondering what kind of world in hell it is. Then comes along Callum 22 and it goes downhill from there. I didn't feel the chemistry that was meant to exist. I found him to be likeable enough, but he was also dull and bland and not nearly enough to break through the shields of supposedly the most dangerous soldier in the state. It was a romance that I couldn't buy into, and one that completely overshadowed the actual plot of the story once it got rolling. The world-building/scientific explanations were rushed, if there at all, and suddenly, gone is the soldier-taking-down-the-government angle. All the dark intrigue disappeared, only to be replaced by a weak love story between a soldier gone soft and a would-be soldier with no backbone, with their half-hearted attempt to break away from HARC and find answers for the questions we were all asking (which, by the way, weren't really answers at all).

I went into its sequel, Rebel, hoping for more, and being left just as disappointed. Wren and Callum find themselves at a Reboot reservation that is led by Micah 163, the deadliest Reboot after Wren and, naturally, he has darker intentions. He plans to wipe out all humans from the face of the earth with his Reboot army in a desire for Reboot domination and as Wren and Callum are quick to find out, is about to launch his attack on the cities. Callum, with his human side still in touch, wants to stop Micah at all costs and protect the humans - he still (naively?) believes that humans and Reboots can co-exist in peace. Wren just wants to leave the fighting behind. HARC are still tracking down their Reboots-gone-rogue. Micah will fight anything and anyone that stands in his way. And with Callum and Wren at odds with one another, they have to compromise and find middle ground. And that means building a Rebel army and taking out two enemies that have nothing to lose...

You'd think there'd be more action in this one, but nope. The world just wasn't built up enough for a war to take place, and for us to be invested in it. None of the lethality and violence that was meant to exist, shone through. I think all of it was just weak; the plot, the characters, the world, none of it had any substance and for the most part, it was choppy, badly paced, and utterly underwhelming. It felt like a half-finished job.

Teach Me To Forget

- by Erica M Chapman

My Goodreads Rating: 2.0/5.0 stars

Ellery has chosen the date of her death. She has the gun. She has the details of her funeral. She has the day. She just has to pull the trigger. But it looks like the universe is putting up a fight when the gun unexpectedly falters and blows her plan to pieces. She's desperate; she has to return the gun and buy a new one. But when she accidentally tries to do so with the wrong receipt, she's turned over to the security guard of the store - Colter Sawyer, who also happens to be in Ellery's English class, and who doesn't buy her flimsy lies and cottons on to what she's up to. As she tries to put some distance between them while at the same time forming a contingency plan for her premeditated death, Colter seems to make it his life's mission to get her to change her mind. He confesses a closely guarded secret of his own and promises to keep hers and Ellery soon finds herself fighting an attraction that keeps interfering with her one life's desire - death - and the ghosts of her past that fuel it. But Ellery can only run for so long and she has to make the impossible choice between living with her mistakes that are catching up with her, or dying to pay the price.

I tend to steer clear of books that focus on suicide or rape (or similarly sensitive topics) only because rarely do I find them written well. It's hard to accurately capture their nature, to make a realistic work of fiction of them, and yet I thought Teach Me To Forget had its moments. It could have worked if the romance wasn't so forced. Ellery's back story, while predictable, worked as did her narrative, but her relationship with Colter simply didn't. It was too convenient, too much of a cop-out for the ending and ultimately, it delivered an unrealistic depiction of mental illness that lets down such books more often than not.

Mr. President
WHITE HOUSE #1

- by Katy Evans

My Goodreads Rating: 1.0/5.0 stars

Charlotte has known Matthew practically her whole life. Refined, charismatic, and intelligent, it comes as no surprise when he runs for President. It does come as a surprise when she is invited to join his presidential campaign. Matt is determined, ruthless, and is a man for the people; with his surging popularity, the opportunity to fight for his place as the next president of the United States and possibly change America for the greater good, is too tempting to turn away. And so is he. Drawn to each other by their undeniable chemistry, they're suddenly both playing with fire with Matt's potential presidency on the line - and the knowledge that losing isn't an option...and that winning will force her to walk away.

Mr President is the prime example of why you should always take reviews with a pinch of salt. Because my God is this book not worthy of a single star, let alone five. If you want a trashy read with sex scenes playing out every other page and you couldn't care less about a plot, this is for you. Otherwise don't bother.

Under Rose-Tainted Skies

- by Louise Gornall

My Goodreads Rating: 4.0/5.0 stars

(I would give this book five stars for that stunning cover - and title - alone...)

Norah is battling with agoraphobia and OCD. She has accepted that the four walls of her house delineate her life. She knows that fearing everything from inland tsunamis to odd numbers is irrational, but her mind keeps her prisoner in her own home, refusing to let her step outside into the world it claims is too big, too dangerous. And when groceries are left on the porch, she can't step out to get them. Struggling to snag the bags with a stick, she meets Luke. He's sweet and funny, and he just caught her fishing for groceries. Because of course he did. Norah can't leave the house, but can she let someone in? As their friendship grows deeper, Norah realizes Luke deserves a normal girl. One who can walk beneath the open sky. One who can lie on the front lawn and look up at the stars. One who is unafraid of kissing. One who isn't so screwed up. Can she let him go for his own good—or can Norah learn to see herself through Luke’s eyes?

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"See, anxiety doesn’t just stop. You can have nice moments, minutes where it shrinks, but it doesn’t leave. It lurks in the background like a shadow, like that important assignment you have to do but keep putting off or the dull ache that follows a three-day migraine" - Norah, Under Rose-Tainted Skies

Under Rose-Tainted Skies is a moving story about mental illness, recovery, and a friendship that blossoms into something more in the most unlikely of circumstances. Norah's narrative is instantly engaging; I found her to be funny, smart, and also vulnerable in ways that felt authentic. It was interesting to be in her headspace, to have an insight into the irrational - and yet debilitating - fears that define agoraphobia and OCD. Despite the humour and light narrative, it doesn't shy away from how deeply consuming and suffocating mental illness can be. I feel like we can all relate to Norah on some level; I saw so much of myself in her, in the thoughts and worries and doubts that are tied to anxiety, and I know that readers out there who suffer from agoraphobia or OCD or just mental illness in any form, will find comfort in Norah's story. Maybe because Louise Gornall has perfectly articulated that which is almost impossible to describe, much less make someone else understand, and through Norah reminds us that the invisible demons that grip our mind, are not entirely faithful to us alone.

Kauser

Part-time blogger, full-time scientist, and lifetime Liverpool fan. Follow me as I document my life, from uni woes, to the chaos of adulthood, and every other awkward moment in-between that is part and parcel of being a socially introverted twenty-something year old.