YA Lit | Books That Love You Back

March Reading Wrap Up!

Posted on April 9, 2022 by shannon5597

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve had a lovely March and that you are enjoying seeing the beginning of spring! I had another mixed month full of ups and downs; I got to go home and see my family including my little brother which was so lovely, however sadly later in the month I did have a family bereavement which has been really difficult. In terms of reading, I did complete two books which I feel was a pretty good achievement considering everything that was going on. One of my reading achievements this month was reading outside in the park for the first time this year! We were blessed with a sunny weekend here in Scotland a couple of weeks ago and I seized the opportunity to go outside to my local park and get some sunny reading in, one of my favourite things to do, and it was blissful! So let me tell you about the books I read this month!

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

Pages: 374

Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction

Rating: 4 Stars!

The Downstairs Girl was my first experience of a Stacey Lee book and I am happy to say I was not disappointed! The Downstairs Girl is a young adult historical fiction novel set in 1890s Atlanta and follows Jo Kuan, a young Asian woman as she navigates life as a classless citizen. By day Jo works at the large house of a rich white family as maid to their tempestuous daughter, fighting to bite back her sassy remarks in order to keep her job. However, privately Jo does not need to bite back her words at all as she is the writer behind the anonymous ‘Miss Sweetie’ advice column in the local newspaper that is taking the town by storm. There are so many layers to this story and to Jo to take in and enjoy; there’s the secret writing and its impact on all facets of society, there’s Jo’s search for her birth parents, there’s the constant danger of simply being Asian and having to fly under the radar at all times and there’s also a tiny speck of romance. I loved Jo as a character too, she was so feisty and determined and despite constant setbacks and society’s attempts to keep her down she never gives up which was amazing to read. I also learned some things from the setting of this book, such as that chinese workers were brought over to the US after the liberation of black slaves to almost take over the work and were not given citizenship making it incredibly hard for them to find housing and live in general. These parts of history and these voices seem to often be missed from historical fiction novels so it was so great to see them represented here. I would highly recommend this novel to any historical fiction lover and I will definitely be adding more Stacey Lee novels to my TBR!

The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West

Pages: 352

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Romance

Rating: 2 stars

The Fill-In Boyfriend is a young adult romance novel by Kasie West and believe me when I say that this book had been on my TBR for literal years! I have seen so many booktubers read and recommend Kasie West’s novels over the years but have just never got round to picking one of them up for myself, so I was excited to get into this one! This novel follows Gia, a popular high school girl who is broken up with by her long-distance college boyfriend in the car park of her prom. Gia panics and ends up asking a random guy to come in with her and pretend to be her boyfriend to her friends. And there enters Hayden or the fill-in boyfriend. Part of the reason I was so excited for this book was the fake dating trope. This trope is a tried and tested classic and is loved by readers because of the tension and suspense that it builds between characters, something this novel really lacked for me. I felt like there was no build up or excitement in the relationship between Gia and Hayden, I mean I liked them together but I wasn’t getting what I needed to be really excited about it. All of the characters seemed very two dimensional and basic, there was a real lack of likeability in most of the main characters and very little character development in anyone except maybe Gia. There were elements of this book that I did enjoy, such as the friendship that develops between Gia and Bec but overall I was disappointed. I would say that perhaps some of my opinions could be due to the fact that I may just be that I felt that the book was suited to the younger side of YA so I did take this into account. I would also add that I will definitely read more Kasie West books to see if there are any that just suit me better and so I can get a better idea of her as an author so definitely don’t discount her on this!

And that’s my march reading wrapped up! I hope you enjoyed hearing about the books that I read this month and I would love to hear about your favourites from March!

Until next time,

Shannon 🙂

January Reading Wrap Up

Posted on February 1, 2022 by shannon5597

Hi Everyone!

I hope you’ve had a lovely January and that 2022 is treating you well so far! I feel like it’s been the longest month ever but still a good one overall! I’ve had an especially good reading month, I finished 3 books in total. Now I know that may not seem like a lot, especially compared to wrap ups you may see from other readers but I’m pretty happy with that and we shouldn’t compare numbers to other people! I enjoyed everything I read in January as well, so a good reading month in terms of quality too! So without further ado, here is my January reading wrap up!

Sunshine & Sweet Peas in Nightingale Square – Heidi Swain

Pages: 464

Genre: Adult Contemporary/Romance

Rating 3.75 Stars

Sunshine and Sweet Peas in Nightingale Square was the perfect read to start the gloomy month of January, when everything goes back to normal and seems so dull in comparison to the sparkle of December. The novel follows Kate, an almost-divorced antiquarian as she moves to the square in search of a totally fresh start and hopefully a quiet life. In her new cosy cottage she achieves the fresh start she desired but not so much the peaceful life. This is due to her friendly (and a little nosy) neighbours who immediately introduce themselves and drag Kate into community life. Before she knows it she’s in charge of finding the residents a community garden space and is also involved in the restoration of the grand house that stands guard over the square. The cast of characters were what made this book so rich and enjoyable, everyone was so warm and interesting with their own little dreams and problems that it was a joy to read about their close knit community. The romance in the novel was as expected from such a story, in that is was quick but swoon-worthy none the less, with the leading man being an ex-model turned historic house restorer (what more can you ask for). My only slight criticism would be that the stubbornness of the main character sometimes came off as standoffish and the fast pace of the romantic feeling developing was a tad on the insta love side. However, overall this was a lovely read to start the year and a joy to sink in to!

3 word review: sweet, cosy, comforting

Black Enough: Stories of being young and black in America – Ibi Zoboi & others

Pages: 400

Genre: Young Adult Short Story Collection

Black Enough is a collection of short stories by black authors, each portraying the experiences of young black people in America. I feel so strongly that we should always be striving to educate ourselves, especially when it comes to the struggles of minority groups whose life experiences may differ from our own. This is why books like this one are so important, so that we can best become allies to others and contribute to a better world in general. I don’t tend to read a lot of short stories or story collections but I really enjoyed dipping into multiple characters’ lives in these stories. Every one explored such important topics but in such an entertaining and accessible way, I could do with a full book of so many of these stories as each character had so much to say and experience and totally drew you into their lives for the short number of pages allowed to them. This was also a great introduction to so many new authors that I can start adding to my TBR! I love that this is an own voices book and that the diversity also extended to the LGBT+ community in multiple of the stories. There is so much to be learned from the stories of others, fictional or not and this book is a great example of that. Definitely worth a read!

Edenbrooke – Julianne Donaldson

Pages: 264

Genre: Adult Historical Romance

Rating: 4 stars

Edenbrooke is a historical romance novel set in nineteenth century England. It follows Marianne Daventry as she spends the summer at Edenbrooke, a beautiful country estate with a stunning house and sprawling grounds surrounding it. Marianne goes to Edenbrooke with the assignment of learning how to become an elegant lady, like her twin sister Cecily. During her stay Marianne builds an unexpected friendship with the son of her host, Philip, who also happens to be the man her sister has her eye on. This book is romantic and atmospheric with beautiful descriptions of the luxurious setting mixed with dialogue that would make anyone swoon, The slow burn romance was so delicious to read and cast of interesting side characters added such an element of fun to the text with each having their own role to play in Marianne’s journey of self discovery. This book is not without its drama and there are some unexpected twists and turns. I loved that Marianne was such a brave and self-sufficient woman even in those times. I loved the romantic relationship with the leading gentleman, it was flirty and respectful and I loved every second of it! If I had to point out one tiny negative it would only be that there were some instances where the dialogue was slightly too americanised for the time period and setting but this is easily overlooked. If you’re looking for a romantic escape from reality, this is a solid bet!

3 Word Review: Atmospheric, romantic, swoonworthy

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed hearing about what I enjoyed this month and I’d love to hear about what you read in January!

Until next time,

Shannon 🙂

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick Book Review

Posted on January 20, 2016 by shannon5597

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Published by: Headline

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Pages: 273

Hi everyone! Today I’m back with my first book review of 2016, how exciting! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year and are looking forward to all of the good times this year is sure to bring. This book is one that I received as a gift for Christmas (I gave my mum a huge list of books I’d like so that she could pick a few and it would still be a surprise for me on Christmas day) and I was so excited to read it, and I’m really glad I did. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is one of those YA books that I feel are just so important. It contains themes of suicide, mental health, sexual assault and parental neglect but these issues are dealt with in an appropriate and sensitive way by the author, and I commend him for this.

The main character, Leonard Peacock, was well-written and interesting. He was a teenage boy with mental health issues but also so much more than that (as all people who suffer from mental issues are) which is another accomplishment of Matthew Quick’s writing as many authors tend to zoom in so far on these traits that their character ends up having no other qualities. Leonard is in a seemingly hopeless situation and portrays himself as having no hope but throughout the novel we repeatedly see this ever-present fragment of hope in his actions, that someone will stop him from committing suicide or even just wish him a happy birthday and this characteristic is one of the things that made me love Leonard. My favourite character in the novel is Walt, Leonard’s next door neighbour who is obsessed with Humphrey Bogart movies and smokes like a chimney. Walt is one of the only people who seem to really care for Leonard and he’s just such a sweet old man that you’d be strange not to love him. Besides this, the relationship between Walt and Leonard is one of the only things keeping them both alive; they are kindred spirits despite their difference in age. Then there is Herr Silverman, Leonard’s holocaust class teacher, one of the most well-written and caring teachers that I’ve ever read in YA. Herr Silverman’s character is one that will resonate with anyone that reads this novel, we all have that one teacher that went the extra mile and changed our lives for the better, and it warmed my heart that this character represented all of those wonderful teachers so well.

The plot of this novel is fast paced and exciting with everything leading up to the murder-suicide that Leonard has planned to carry out on his 18^th birthday but despite the fast pace you don’t feel that anything has been missed out. The plot is well thought-out and an emotional rollercoaster – you may need tissues and a cup of tea to help with both happy and sad tears. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book; however, I did feel that the ending could have had more detail and information as we are so emotionally invested in the storyline but apart from that, an excellent and important read for fans of YA fiction.

Hope you enjoyed!

Until next time,

Shannon x

Rating: 4/5

Recommend? YES

3Q3D - 1

The Bedtime Book Tag

Posted on August 15, 2015 by shannon5597

Hi everyone! I am back with a today with a fun book tag for you all! I was tagged to do this one by the fabulous Kendra @ Student By Day, Reader By Night so go and give her post a read as it was awesome! I know I always say this but it really makes me feel happy and welcome when people tag me in things so thanks everyone! And now let’s begin!

A book that kept you up all night

I have to say, it’s rare that I will stay up all night to read a book as I always feel that the more tired I get, the less I take in and remember. However, I do remember staying up late so that I could keep reading Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell because it was just so damn good!

A book that made me too scared to sleep

Again, I don’t really read a lot of scary books because I am a wimp who gets scared easily! But one book that really scared me at the start and made me scared to sleep (even though once I actually got into it turned out to be not very scary at all) was Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. The freaky, old pictures at the start were really frightening because they were real!

A book that made you go to sleep

For this one I’d have to say Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom. I know that a lot of people love this book but I just couldn’t get into it, I found it very boring from the beginning although maybe I didn’t give it enough of a chance. Maybe I will try again in the future!

A book that left you tossing and turning all night in anticipation of its release

I was very excited about the release of All I Know Now by Carrie Hope Fletcher. I pre-ordered it and couldn’t wait for it to come in and I wasn’t disappointed when it did finally arrive ( a few days late ugh). You can read my review of it – here.

A book that has your dream boyfriend

The Harry Potter Series – Ron Weasley, duh.

Fangirl By Rainbow Rowell – Levi is goals.

A book that would be your worst nightmare to live in

For this one I’d have to say the Hunger Games Trilogy because I would never survive in the hunger games because I don’t think I’d be able to kill people, also I can’t run fast so my only option would be to climb a tree and hide there until another competitor shot me down or the creators sent something horrendous to kill me. None of which sound fun!

A book that reminds you of night time

To be honest, I find this question quite tricky as there isn’t really a book that springs instantly to mind when I think of night time. However, I do remember reading the Twilight series a lot at night time and it also seems to be night time a lot in that series so we’ll go with that!

A book that had a nightmarish cliff-hanger

For this one I have to go with Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. As it’s a sequel I can’t really say why it’s a cliff-hanger but it definitely has one! I seriously need to get round to reading Cress as soon as possible!

A book that you actually dreamed about

I know that this is probably a clichéd answer but never mind; I have had quite a few dreams about Harry Potter. It’s not my fault it’s always on my mind – blame J.K Rowling!

Anyway, who wouldn’t want to dream that they’re a student at Hogwarts?

A book monster that you would not like to find under your bed

To be quite honest I wouldn’t really like to find any monsters under my bed but one of the worst ones to find would be a Griever from the Maze Runner Trilogy – those things are horrific!

So we have come to the end of another book tag! Thanks again to Kendra for tagging me – don’t forget to check out her page!

Now I tag:

Eilidh @ Turning the Faucet On

Erika @ Erika In Bookventureland

Aira @ Aira Reads

Charley @ booksandbakes1

That’s all I have for now!

Until next time,

Shannon x

Three Days, Three Quotes Challenge – Day 3

Posted on August 6, 2015 by shannon5597

Hi everyone! Today I’m here with my third and final quote for this challenge. I have really enjoyed taking part so thanks again to Erika for tagging me. Today’s quote comes from another of my favourite ever books (and also one of the prettiest books that I own) and I picked it because it was one of those quotes that just really struck a chord with me when I read it in the book and has stayed with me. So without further ado (and rambling) here it is. . .

” ‘Isn’t it okay to say, “this really hurts so I’m going to stop trying”?’

‘It sets a dangerous precedent’.

‘For avoiding pain?’

‘For avoiding life,’ “

Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell

I feel like this is such an important quote and general life lesson; never give up! We all go through pain and it’s impossible to avoid, and if we spent our whole lives trying to protect ourselves from it then we wouldn’t really be living!

Wow, that got deep!

I hope that you enjoyed my posts for this challenge!

My final nominee is: Student By Day, Reader All Night

Until next time,

Shannon x

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before Duology By Jenny Han Review

Posted on July 20, 2015 by shannon5597

Published By: SCHOLASTIC

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary/Romance

Book 1 ‘To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before’ Pages: 421

Book 2 ‘Ps I Still Love You’ Pages: 357

Hi everyone! So, the time has come for my first series review! I’ll start off by saying that I am aware that there is a lot of speculation at the moment over whether there will be a third novel in this series but after the first book Jenny Han seemed quite sure it would be a duology so I’ve decided to review it as such. However, if a third book does get released (and I will definitely be reading it if there is) then I will review it individually and link back to this post – no big deal! The first book in this duology; ‘To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before’ was the first Jenny Han book that I had read and I was really excited due to the hype around this book, and ok I will admit that the adorable cover had something to do with it! So I am excited to share my thoughts with you!

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before centres around our main character Lara Jean and her family which consists of their Dad, Lara Jean, her older sister Margot and their little sister Kitty; the girls’ mother having died prior to the beginning of this novel. As most teenagers do Lara Jean has developed a few crushes as she’s been growing up, however, when these crushes fizzle out she writes a letter to the boy explaining exactly how she felt about them in order to rid herself of the feelings. Of course these letters are never meant to be sent out; they’re meant to stay in Lara Jean’s hat box forever more, but one day they are posted. The main character of Lara Jean is very innocent and naïve in this novel, something that others have disliked in this book, but I think that this is quite realistic and relatable to many other girls, and essentially the target demographic for this novel. The characters of her sisters and father were fully developed with Margot being strong and dependable with a caring maternal side, Kitty is determined to be more grown up than she is and has a menacing temper and their father is one of the best that I have read in any YA; he is extremely supportive of the girls and I loved that he made a huge effort to incorporate the heritage that their mother would have encouraged into the girls’ upbringing by cooking Korean food and teaching them about it. Two of the other main characters are Josh, Margot’s boyfriend and honorary family member and Peter Kavinsky, a stereotypical popular boy, and one of those to receive a letter from Lara Jean. These characters were also well written with full personalities and flaws but I don’t want to say too much about them in fear of spoiling it for you! The writing style was fun and descriptive, especially when describing the cakes and cookies that Lara Jean is always whipping up – it was enough to make my mouth water! I thoroughly enjoyed that the girls were half Korean and learning about certain foods and traditions that they had in honour of this. Overall I really enjoyed this book and was left wanting more, even though at times I did find Lara Jean to be a little irritating, so thank goodness that there’s a sequel!

Rating: 4/5

P.S I Still Love You

I read P.S I Still Love You while on holiday and I will say that it makes a pretty perfect fun summer read, even though the majority of it is set in the winter! This book picks up pretty much where the first book stops which I really enjoyed as it meant that there were no gaps that needed to be quickly filled in before the story could commence. In this book Lara Jean, in my opinion, goes through quite a significant amount of character development, she becomes less naïve and juvenile particularly regarding her relationships with other people. I actually enjoyed this book more than the first one as we got to know some of the secondary characters’ back stories and some new, fun characters from Lara Jean’s childhood were introduced which I loved reading about. Margot is featured less in this novel as she is away at university in Scotland (my home country!!) but the character development in Kitty and Lara Jean’s new love interest definitely make up for that! Perhaps one of the reasons for the development in Lara Jean’s maturity is that she now has to play the mother figure alone most of the time. I enjoyed the writing more in this novel too although it’s hard to put my finger on what exactly was different. A new setting in this novel is that of the elderly persons residency that Lara Jean goes to work at, this was possibly my favourite setting as the people living there had such compelling and hilarious characters which made me think of my own grandmother and her friends. I am reluctant to talk about plot as this is a sequel and I am determined to always make my reviews spoiler free but I will say that there is an incident in this novel that involves modern use of technology and I absolutely loved the way that it was written and the reaction of the characters to it – a round of applause for Jenny Han, please! Finally, I’d just like to note that I very much appreciated the hot, charming young men in this novel. That is all.

Rating: 4.5/5

As always, thank you for reading! Until next time,

Shannon x

RECOMMEND SERIES? YES

Aristotle & Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe Book Review

Posted on June 10, 2015 by shannon5597

“To be careful with people and with words was a rare and beautiful thing”

Published By: Simon and Schuster

Pages: 359

Genre: YA Contemporary

Hi everyone! This is definitely the trickiest review that I’ve written on this blog so far. It’s tricky because I loved this book so much and for so many reasons and I desperately don’t want to leave anything out, so bear with me. First of all, this book was like a breath of fresh air from the majority of YA novels, or novels in general, that I have read in terms of diversity. Both of the main characters in this book are teenage Mexican –American boys, in relation to this there were bits of Spanish peppered through the book as well as mention of traditional Mexican foods which, for me, provided some great cultural education that I really enjoyed exploring. This book also features LGBTQA+ characters and relationships in the way that they should be written about, that is to say not just as sassy, flamboyant gay best friends but as real, multi-dimensional people with real, strong and healthy relationships. It annoys me that this is a rarity in fiction, especially YA.

Now, on to the characters! Let’s start with Ari. Ari Mendoza (his full name is Angel Aristotle Mendoza!!) is a teenage boy who is at war with himself. Ari doesn’t have friends, loves spending time alone and can’t swim. His thoughts and dreams are plagued with questions of his older brother who is in prison, and who his parents never mention and refuse to talk about. More than anything Ari struggles with being himself, he can’t see the good in himself which is almost heart-breaking to read about. This novel is written entirely from Ari’s perspective and even though we are essentially in his head it is still sometimes a struggle to try and understand exactly what he’s thinking – this is exceptionally clever writing. Ari is a character that will be very relatable to a lot of teenagers, especially due to the realistic way his feelings were written.

Then we have Dante Quintana; self-assured, full of life and unapologetically his true self – almost the complete opposite of Ari. Dante is such a lovable character; he’s honest and fun and although generally positive, he is not unrealistically so. Dante has some of the coolest parents that I’ve ever read about, they know their son so well and love him so much that we love them as much as we love Dante, because of how much they love Dante. I don’t even know if that made sense. Another thing that I loved about this book was how much the parents featured in it as in some YA the parents seem to always be conveniently out or ‘travel for work’ which seems highly unrealistic. But in this novel not only were the parents of both boys heavily involved, they were all fully formed characters in their own right which I loved! Going back to Dante, he brings out the best in Ari both by pushing him to talk by asking questions but also by simply being his friend and needing a friend in return.

An interesting point about this novel is that it doesn’t really take the conventional route in relation to plot. There are a few major plot points in this book but for the most part the plot is literally the developing friendship of the two boys and their families. You may think that this would make the story slow and a little mundane but Benjamin Alire Sáenz has achieved the opposite effect. Having all the little twists and turns in the relationship as the plot was fascinating, it also meant that we didn’t miss anything that happened between them which just made me more attached to the characters. I also enjoyed that it was set in the late eighties therefore meaning that there were no mobile/cell phones or home computers which made the friendship so much simpler and somehow more real as well as making me nostalgic for when you had to phone your friends’ home phone to see if they were in!

The writing in this novel, oh the writing, it was beautiful. There were so many amazing quotes and sentences that took my breath away, almost every few lines. The writing style is quite simple but has a poetic quality that, paired with the characters, makes for a very emotional read – be warned this book will provoke lots of feelings. I feel like this book is one of those that you could read over and over again and every time you’d gain something new from it or notice something that you’d missed before, it feels like a book full of secrets. I for one will definitely be reading this multiple times as it has become an instant favourite of mine. You should read this book, seriously, if you don’t you’re really missing out! Have you already read this book? Let me know what you thought of it in the comments!

That’s all for now, thanks for reading!

Shannon J

Note: Thank you to my best friend Eilidh for getting me this book for my birthday (click her name to check out her blog – it’s awesome!)

Summary

Rating: 5/5

Recommend? YES, EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THIS!!

My Life Next Door By Huntley Fitzpatrick Book Review

Posted on June 5, 2015 by shannon5597

Published by: SPEAK

Pages: 394

Hey everyone! Let’s start today with a fact about me; I love YA contemporary novels about teen romance and I am not in the least ashamed of it. However, there are certain aspects commonly found in such novels that, if overdone, threaten to put me off an author completely. For example, the romances in these books can sometimes be almost comically cheesy and unrealistic, I mean two kids who have hated each other their whole life with one bullying the other incessantly suddenly fall in love literally overnight? Come on. It is fair to say that because of such cringe-inducing scenarios found in these novels that that YA contemporary romance genre sometimes seems to have a bad reputation. I say to hell with this bad rep, there are so many gems in this genre that people may never pick up because of the stereotype or a cheesy cover but you should, you definitely should. If I had to recommend authors to start you out in this genre I would say go for authors like Jenny Han or Rainbow Rowell or, after reading this joy of a book; Huntley Fitzpatrick. You will not be disappointed.

So, after that little ramble let’s talk about the book. First things first; this cover is gorgeous and so is the story inside. Our two main characters are Samantha Reed and Jase Garrett. Samantha is the daughter of the local senator and her mother rules her with an iron fist in their perfect, immaculate house. Jase, on the other hand, comes from a large family who struggle a little with money but are free to be whoever they want to be, and they live right next door. I adored the characters in this book, each and every one of them had distinguishable personalities that were fully developed without it seeming like too much of the story was spent describing them, they all had flaws and passions which made them relatable and exciting. This is a summery, romance novel but it also has a depth and meaningfulness that some YA novels lack which made it a very refreshing read. Most of the depth comes from one specific point in the plot which, I thought, was handled excellently and was written very realistically which was another aspect of this novel that I really enjoyed.

Huntley Fitzpatrick’s portrayal of all of the relationships in this novel, not only the main one between Jase and Samantha, were spot on and I loved that many different types of real-life relationships were written about. For example, there are the relationships between Jase and his siblings which are all different and interesting depending on all of their personalities. Within the book there’s also the topic of addiction as a kind of subplot which, again, made this different from other similar novels that I have read. I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style that Huntley Fitzpatrick has, it is warm and compelling as well as relatable and funny which is everything that you need to pull off a YA novel.

The reason that I am only giving this book 4.5/5 as a rating is simply because it ended too soon for me, I felt that there could have been a little more resolution to tie it all up nicely but that’s just my opinion. I think it’s fair to say that I LOVED this book, I’d even go as far as to say that I will probably re-read this next summer and many summers after that. I am so excited to have discovered another author that I love and I can’t wait to read everything else that she has written and everything that is still to come!

Shannon x

SUMMARY

Rating: 4.5/5

Recommend? YES!!!

All I Know Now by Carrie Hope Fletcher Book Review

Posted on May 19, 2015 by shannon5597

All I Know Now by Carrie Hope Fletcher Book Review

Published By: Sphere

Pages: 322

Hi there! This is my first ever post on this blog and also my first ever written book review – how exciting! So, let’s get started! I’ll start off by saying that I was VERY excited about the release of this book, having watched Carrie’s youtube videos for over a year and gaining inspiration and wisdom from them along the way I had often wished for her advice to be in some physical format that I could reach for. Therefore it’s needless to say that I was thrilled upon hearing of the release of All I Know Now, and swept up in Carrie’s palpable excitement about everything from the writing process to the book tour planned following the release. So I pre-ordered the book and finally got round to reading it about a week after the release date. And I was not disappointed!

The format of the book is set out like that of a theatre show, an ode to another key aspect of Carrie’s career as an actress in the West End, with various acts and the help section at the end being labelled as ‘Props’. I found this aspect of the book to be very clever and fun, also making it easy to navigate were you to want to read about a specific topic. The Acts and the chapters within them covered a wide range of topics that were both interesting and helpful covering issues such as ‘How to Apologise’ and ‘The Past and Making Peace with It’. My personal favourite chapter was number 46; ‘Ripples’ which talked about the importance of small acts of kindness and how they can go on to inspire similar kind doings in others.

The writing style was warm and witty, much like Carrie in her videos, such was the likeness in fact that I could almost hear her saying the words in her usual charismatic manner as I read along which only made the experience more enjoyable. As you can see from the picture above, there were many points in the book that I knew I would want to return to in the future was I ever in search of some damn good advice or some Carrie wisdom. Some of the highlights, for me personally, were when Carrie shared stories that were both heart-warming, side- splittingly funny and always relatable (apart from the one with the bear of course!). At many times during these dips into her past I found myself smiling from ear to ear and laughing out loud almost as if I was hearing these stories from a best friend or big sister. My only qualm with this book is there were times when I was gaining so much from a chapter or I was so interested in what she had to say on a particular topic that at the end I was left wanting more, however, I have no doubt that there is more to come from this show-stopping young woman. To summarise, this is a big sister in a book!

Hope you enjoyed this post!

Shannon x

Summary

Rating: 4/5

Recommend? YES