Review: The Belles

Holy pretty cover, batman.

Everybody knows, I think, that I love me a good dystopia. Seriously, it just never seems to get old for me, I am always here for all of the post-apocalyptic disaster stories. All the time. I’m not sure if The Belles, the first in a new series by Dhonielle Clayton and published tomorrow is classed as dystopian or whether it’s an alternative reality because I don’t think that’s ever explicitly stated, but it felt dystopian to me, so that’s what we’ll go with. Teen feminist dystopia. Is that a thing?

Things That I Have Seen and Liked (Bookish Edition)

It’s been a while, hasn’t it, since I did one of these posts. Not because there hasn’t been anything that I have seen and/or liked but because I’ve just been a bit rubbish about doing anything about posting about it. 

I want, though, to be better at this whole blogging thing and also to have a little more variety to my posts than just I READ A BOOK and so here we are, a list of (bookish, obvs) things that I have seen and liked recently. If I can organise my life a little I might even do this on the regular, please though, don;t hold your breath because by even saying that I might be setting myself up to fail. Ha.

Quick January Wrap-Up

Let’s wrap up January shall we? Why not.

Do you want to know a secret? I don’t like January. I really don’t. It’s just such a month, you know? It’s cold and dark and miserable and nobody has any money and Christmas is past and spring is forever away and I just…it’s probably my worst of all months actually and I a v glad it is over. That said, my little best pal was born in January, just. She was 8 yesterday – HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOOBY – so it’s not all bad. Just most of it. Hush.

Review: The Exact Opposite of Okay

Ok let’s talk about this book I read. Hahaha. That’s hilarious. This is a book blog; how often is it that I talk about anything else?

Anyhow. The Exact Opposite of Okay is Laura Steven’s debut and it’s been getting a lot of attention, for more reasons I suspect than it’s incredibly lush cover. I mean sure, that’s what caught my eye but not everybody is as much of a book magpie as I am, I know this. The point is, this book has been generating a lot of buzz since last year and its not even published until March and hello this is me we’re talking about here: obviously I wanted to get right on that bandwagon.

I’m super glad that I did. For sure.

2018 releases I want to read - Part 3

Yep, I’m still going with this. I don’t even know what to tell you. I am so excited about all things bookish this year. SO EXCITED. Here, have another list of 2018 publications that have got my little bookish radar tingling…

Review: Three Things About Elsie

Filed under ‘beautiful things that made my heart hurt’: this book.

I loved it, by the way. Let’s make that clear from the start because sometimes I read my stuff back after the fact and sort of think ‘wow, that review does not make it seem like I loved that as much as I did’ which is unfortunate, really. Anyhow.  I really really liked this book. Also, sometimes I worry that my saying a book left me feeling a little ouchy might be misinterpreted as my not liking it.

This book made my heart hurt and I liked it a whole lot.

2018 releases I want to read - Part 2

Let’s talk about more 2018 releases I am excited about because apparently there are lots.

I am Thunder by Muhammad Khan is a January YA release about a fifteen year girl who knows exactly what she wants her life to look like – but her parents, who plan for her become a doctor and marry her cousin from Pakistan have other ideas. It’s a debut novel about standing up for what you believe and it sounds like it might be a book that’s needed.

2018 releases I want to read - Part 1

Wow but I didn’t realise how many books due for publication this year were already on my radar until I started this post; I tend to just make notes – on my phone, on my computer etc – and it’s only when I came to actually look at it that I realised that actually there’s quite a lot that I’m excited about.

I bet these aren't even a tiny percentage of  Excellent Books Coming Soon because I never claim to be one of those that is In The Know, these are just the few that have happened to dance across my field of vision. It's a fun thing to blog about though, partly because NEW BOOKS and partly because it will make for another fun post at the end of the year when I come back and see how many I managed to read.  Or at least I’m hoping it’s a fun thing to blog about - it's fun for me at least, and that's a good enough starting point I think!

Book Review: The Innocent Wife

I am such a sucker for a good psychological thriller so I totally jumped at the chance to read The Innocent Wife by Amy Lloyd (published at the end of December) because wow, how many boxes did that blurb tick for me? A Death Row killer, the English schoolteacher who falls in love with him, the Making the Murderer style documentary that leads to his release, the realisation after the fact that maybe he’s not as innocent as he seems. SO MANY BOXES.

Book Review: Artemis

OH MY GOODNESS AND ALSO GRACIOUS THIS BOOK. I LOVED IT.

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I was always going to, I know I was. It was one of my most anticipated reads of last year for a reason. A HEIST ON THE MOON, GUYS. I am so glad it didn’t disappoint. I am less glad that it stole my Sunday, which was the first day in ages that the skies were blue and probably I should have been outdoors, and not curled under a blanket all day reading but whatever. I have no regrets. Isn’t it the best ever when you’re super excited for a book and when you finally read it you LOVE it? For sure it is.