Review: Truth or Dare

Truth or Dare - Non Pratt

Sooo in my ILLUMICRATE subscription box (which you should all go and subscribe to because it’s lush) there was a book – two books actually but let’s not over complicate – and that book was Truth or Dare by Non Pratt. And I won’t lie: I’ve heard of Non, but I hadn’t heard of this book at all. I liked the cover though (call me fickle, whatever) and after I finished The Hate U Give I thought I’d give it a go mostly because it was there and I wasn’t in the mood to tackle my usual WHAT SHALL I READ NEXT dilemma.

Daddy, My Daddy

So, today is Father’s Day, a day to celebrate Dad’s everywhere and with that in mind, and because I feel like this blog should perhaps maybe be a little bit more than all the reviews all time, I’m going to talk about Dads with daughters because I’m a daughter who genuinely honestly 100% believes her Dad is the best man she ever met and a million times better actually than any on this list. It was a fun list to compile actually because there’s a lot of them and some are good and some are bad and some are downright nuts and it made me happy. & also made me want to do some serious re-reading. & I know you want to know who made the cut, so sit down ,grab a cup of coffee and take a look and then drop me a comment and let me know who your favourite bookish Dads are. I WANT TO KNOW.

Ooooh, actually let's make a list. I love a list.  

Review: Flight of a Starling

Flight of a Starling - Lisa Heathfield

Rita and Lo, sisters and best friends, have spent their lives on the wing – flying through the air in their trapeze act, never staying in one place for long. Behind the greasepaint and the glitter, they know that the true magic is the family they travel with.

Until Lo meets a boy. Suddenly, she wants nothing more than to stay still. And as secrets start to tear apart the close-knit circus community, how far will Lo go to keep her feet on the ground?

Oh, but my heart.

Review: The Names They Gave Us

The Names They Gave Us - Emery Lord 

When it all falls apart, who can you believe in?

Everything is going right for Lucy Hansson, until her mom’s cancer reappears. Just like that, Lucy breaks with all the constants in her life: her do-good boyfriend, her steady faith, even her longtime summer church camp job.

Instead, Lucy lands at a camp for kids who have been through tough times. As a counselor, Lucy is in over her head and longs to be with her parents across the lake. But that’s before she gets to know her coworkers, who are as loving and unafraid as she so desperately wants to be.

It’s not just new friends that Lucy discovers at camp—more than one old secret is revealed along the way. In fact, maybe there’s much more to her family and her faith than Lucy ever realized.  

I won’t lie: my expectations weren’t all that high for this book. I read When We Collided recently and was disappointed but The Names They Gave Us, the new book from Emery Lord, resonated with me, in ways I wasn’t quite prepared for. 

It’s about a girl called Lucy, she’s a Christian, heavily involved in her Church – her Dad is a pastor – and spends every summer at the Church camp her parents run. Her faith is a part of her, a deeply ingrained part of who she is and then her Mum gets diagnosed with cancer and her faith begins to waver and the book, basically, is an exploration of that: of faith, of the lack of it, of grief and loss and growing up.

& it’s good.

Quick May Wrap-Up

Perhaps I’ll do this every month because why would I not. I mean, with the BEST WILL IN THE WORLD – and let me tell you, my will is good – I never ever get to review all of the books that I want to review and this seems like a nice little way to make sure that the books I don’t manage to spotlight get a mention. And I can talk all about all the other stuff that’s been going on also, because my life is nothing if not fascinating. I mean, I read a lot and I sleep and lot and I drink a lot of coffee and why would you not want to hear all about that?

So, let’s do it. Let’s talk about May.