Book Review: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Title: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist 
Author: David Levithan & Rachel Cohn 
Publisher: Ember
Release Date: 28/08/2007
Pages: 183
Service: Gift
Format: Paperback
Buy: Book Depository

'It all started when Nick asks Norah to be his girlfriend for five minutes to avoid his ex-girlfriend, who's just walked into his band's show. With a new guy. And then, with one kiss, Nick and Norah are off on an adventure set against the backdrop of New York City - and smack in the middle of all the joy, anxiety, confusion, and excitement of a first date.

Book Review: Eleanor & Park

Title: Eleanor & Park 
Author: Rainbow Rowell 
Publisher: Orion 
Release Date: 12/04/2012
Pages: 325
Service: Library 
Format: Paperback
Buy: Book Depository
Author Twitter: @rainbowrowell

'Eleanor is the new girl in tow, with her chaotic family life, her mismatched clothes and her unruly red hair, she couldn't stick out more if she tried. 

Park is the boy at the back of the bus. Black t-shirts, headphone, head in a book - he things he's made himself invisible. But not to Eleanor... never to Eleanor. 

Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall for each other. They fall in love they way you do the first time, when you're young, and you feel as if you have nothing and everything to lose.'

This was the first Rainbow Rowell book that I picked up and I can quite happily say that I was not at all disappointed in what I read. I had started to read this book with high hopes and if anything, this book exceeded all expectation. Rainbow Rowell, you have yourself a new fan. 

'Eleanor & Park' was a memorising story of two people discovering love for the very first time and how they cope with that. It was such a beautifully written story and Rowell's writing style was something that I gelled with so well. I couldn't get through the book faster once I had started it. 

Her characters were perfectly written. I loved how they weren't your stereotypical character. Both Eleanor and Park had insecurities that they knew about and they didn't like and didn't really come to terms with feeling comfortable with. It was nice seeing that side of characters, seeing them not feel comfortable with the way they look or just who they are as a person. They had problems and they were realistic problems, ones that you would come across. Rowell has no problem with throwing diverse characters into this story with made it such a refreshing read. We see different cultures in there and the way that those cultures effect the characters. 

The plot itself was written so well. There were parts where my heart just ached for some characters and the plight that they were in. You couldn't help but empathise with them. Though you could see where the plot was going, it wasn't in an annoying predictable way that you didn't want to read the rest of the book. I wanted to keep reading to see if I was right, to see how things were going to end. 

Did I expect the ending? No, not at all. It's such a heart breaking book that when I read the ending, I wish that it didn't finish there. I am yearning for more of Eleanor and Park's story.

I can give nothing but praise for this book and I'll definitely be picking up more of Rowell's books. 

Favourite Quote: 

Rating:  ★★★★★

Book Review: Love... Under Different Skies

Title: Love... Under Different Skies 

Author: Nick Spalding

Publisher: Coronet
Series: Love... #4

Release Date: 31/01/2013

Pages: 384

Service: Ninja Book Swap

Format: Paperback
Buy: Book Depository
Author Twitter: @spalding_author

'Even on the other side of the world, problems always have a way of finding you. 

Sometimes, the hardest part of staying together is keeping a straight face...

Ever wish you could leave all your problems behind and make a fresh start somewhere else? Trade the stresses and the strains of everyday life for your own slice of sun-kissed paradise on the other side of the world? 

Jamie and Laura Newman certainly have. 

When Jamie's spectacular meltdown at work results in him being handed his P45, and Laura finds her working days end up with her rugby tackling defenceless pensioners in the hight street, a move ten thousand miles away sounds ideal. After all, it might mend some of the cracks that have appeared in their marriage over the past few months.

So when Laura is offered a new job in Australia. the Newman family think their dreams have come true. But as the old saying goes - be careful what you wish for, you might just get it. As the hapless couple soon find out, problems have a way of finding you, no matter how far you go to avoid them. 

Can love survive under different skies?

When I put this book on my wishlist, I didn't realise that it was part of a series and goodreads didn't seem to tell me either. That wasn't a problem though. As I started to read this book, it didn't seem to matter that I hadn't read the other books in the series, it seemed like I had all the information that I needed. It seemed to be that Spalding made it so that you could read these books as a standalone and you can read the other if you wanted to know more about the couple's journey. Sadly, I didn't manage to finish their journey this time around  The book has come a DNF for me. 
I didn't completely dislike the book. I did like the fact that the chapters alternated between Jamie writing in his blog and Laura writing in her diary. Laura's POV was the one that I enjoyed more. I think Jamie's character was a little too blunt for me and I didn't really agree with some of the things that he did. 
There is quite a bit of swearing in the book but that wasn't what really bothered me. There were some jokes in the book that I didn't agree with and I just really didn't like Jamie's character. I couldn't continue with the book, so I really had to end up putting it down before I got 100 pages in. 
Rating: DNF

Book Review: Anna and the French Kiss

Title: Anna and the French Kiss 
Author: Stephanie Perkins 
Publisher: Usborne Publishing 
Series: Anna and the French Kiss #1
Release Date: 01/01/2014
Pages: 416
Format: Ebook 
Download: iBooks 
Buy: Book Depository 
Author Twitter: @NaturallySteph

'Anna has everything figured out - she was about to start her senior year with her best friend, she had a great weekend job, and her huge work crush looked as if it finally might be going somewhere... Until her dad decides to send her 4383 miles away to Paris. On her own.

But despite not speaking a work of French, Anna finds herself making new friends, including Etienne, the smart, beautiful boy from the floor above. But he's taken - and Anna might be too. Will a year of romantic near-missed end with the French kiss she's been waiting for.'

I'm going to be completely honest, this was a book that I was in two minds about and I didn't really think about picking it up. My sister ended up getting it on iBooks because it was free for a while and she told me to get it and after a few times of her reminding me, I ended up getting it. And I am so glad that I did. This whole book surprised me so much, I didn't think I would fall in love with it half as much as I did. 

I fell in love with it from the very first chapter and it didn't take me all too long to love Anna. There were so many aspects of this girl which made her seem so much more real. She gets annoyed with her parents and brother but yet, you can see that she still loves them. She not quickly drawn into the whole amazing feeling of living in Paris, instead she's quite reluctant. She doesn't jump at the chance to learn French and Perkins didn't make her just quickly latch onto the language with no problem. You can see the struggle she has with the language and with some of her subjects in school. 


Your fictional crush can move out of the way for Ettiene St. Clair. Yet another beautifully crafted, realistic character that Perkins had created and you can't help but fall in love with him. He isn't the perfect, general player or jock type character that you seem to find in some books. He has clear flaws, he isn't that tall and he loves history to the point his friends tell him to shut up. Perkins doesn't just mention these problems once and leave them but but they are part of the book and we constantly see how he does feel slightly insecure about them as any person would. 

This book moved at a really good pace. The chapters weren't too long but nothing seemed rushed. Even though this was a romance story, it was nice to see the way Anna grew as a person and the friendships that she had within the group. The way how she saw that she was sometimes wrong in the things that she did and tried to make up for those things. 

'Anna and the French Kiss' was a book that made me just sigh and feel all happy and warm inside and I know that it's a book that I can turn to if I ever I'm ever feeling a little down. I would 100% recommend this to anyone who is just looking for a book that will make them want to melt and make them feel a lot better. 

Rating: ★★★★★

Book Review: Unremembered

Title: Unremembered 
Author: Jessica Brody
Publisher: Macmilan Children's Books
Series: Unremembered #1 
Release Date: 05/03/2013
Pages: 320 
Format: Paperback 
Buy: Book Depository
Author Twitter: @jessicabrody

'A catastrophic plan crash leaves one survivor: a girl with no memory.

Who is she?

Where does she come from?

Nobody knows and no one comes forward to claim her.

Haunted by a looming threat she can't remember and plagued by abilities she doesn't understand, she struggles to recall who she is. But every clue leads to more questions. And she's running out of time to answer them.

Her only hope is a boy who claims they were once in love.

Alone and on the run, who should she trust? And what if she discovers that she is safer with a past that stays unremembered?'

So, I saw this book on a giveaway on twitter and I was really looking forward to reading it. I looked it up on goodreads and it just seemed like the type of book that I was looking for and I just really liked the sound of it. 

I was disappointed with this book though for numerous reasons. The actual sound of the plot was amazing but I felt that nothing really happened in the book until about 60% of the way in and even then, I wasn't exactly drawn into the book. I know that in a book explanation does need to be given and there are essential parts of the plot that you need include but for me, it was a really slow read. There seemed to be a lot of information dumping, which made it harder to get my head around everything that was going on, especially towards the end of the book. I struggled to get into the story and I felt like I was only trying to get through the book so that I could finish reading it instead of enjoying. 

What was supposed to be a sci-fi book and a romance book turned out to be quite heavy with romance with very little sci-fi. I have nothing against romance books but I was looking forward to a sci-fi read but it wasn't there. There were aspects of it but I think I was predicting a book that would be slightly more based on the sci-fi. It just felt as though we were trying to have our attention brought to the romance aspect of the book that was going on.

I found it extremely hard to get in touch with Seraphina and to be able to empathise with her. No matter how much her situation was explained to try to get us to understood her, I found it incredibly hard and it just made it a little harder for me to read the book. It was understandable that she had lost her memory but even as the book progressed, I just felt like there was no real personality there and it was only really towards the end of the book that there seemed to be a small connection between me and the character. 

Personally, I don't think I'm going to be picking up the other books in the series. It wasn't an enjoyable read for me and I was looking more forward to finishing it than finding out what was going to happen in the plot. 

Rating: ★★

Book Review: Soulmates

Title: Soulmates
Author: Holly Bourne 
Publisher: Usborne Publishing
Release Date: 01/09/2013
Pages: 544
Format: Paperback
Buy: Book Depository
Author Twitter: @Holly_BourneYA


‘Every so often, two people are born who are the perfect matches for each other. Soulmates. But while the odds of this happening are as likely as being struck by lightning, when these people do meet and fall in love… thunderstorms, lightning strikes and lashings of rain are only the beginning of their problems. 

Enter Poppy, the 17-year-old cynic with a serious addiction to banana milk, and Noah, the heart-throb guitarist; residents of mediocre Middletown, sometimes students and… soulmates.

 After a chance meeting at a local band night, Poppy and Noah find themselves swept up in a whirlwind romance unlike anything they’ve ever experienced before. But with a secret agency preparing to separate them, a trail of destruction rumbling in their wake, (and a looming psychology coursework deadline), they are left with an impossible between the ending of the world, or a life without love…’

This book has been sitting in my TBR pile and I couldn’t wait to pick it up after I saw a lot of hype about it on twitter. So, I finally decided that it was my next book to tackle and I didn’t regret it at all. 

There are so many reasons that I am in love with this book. All the way through the book you could sense that it was pure British; from the language Bourne had used to the way she spoke about college for Poppy and her friends. It’s not often that I come about a book that is based in Britain and catches my eye and this one was amazing. 

Lately in books, I have really been struggling to find one that finds a good balance between descriptive writing and speech and for me, Soulmates hit the hammer on the head with the balance. I was two chapters into the books and the description was beautiful, it was exactly the sort of thing that I have missed reading and that had to be one of the main things that made me hooked to the book. I loved the way everything was explained and how the writing just flowed. 

I was in love with Poppy’s dad from the moment that he was mentioned. The father-daughter relationship was really well wrote and you could see that he was the one that Poppy inherited a lot of her habits from and that they seemed to understand each other and the way they are. I love his attitude towards most things in life and how he looks out for Poppy but not in an over-bearing way. 

Even though Poppy and Noah were the main focus of the book, we got chapters where it was jumping to the people who knew what was going on between Poppy and Noah which I really enjoyed reading about because it gave you a little break from the main point of the story whilst still being about it. Anita and Rain were two people I really wanted to see more of and I really did get curious as to what was going to happen between those two. Anita’s story really made me want to read on and find out what happened to her. 
I love Poppy and Noah’s relationship and how they ended up opening up to each other and grow with each other. It was really enjoyable to read. 

I did find Poppy slightly annoying though as she did seem to be slightly stereotypical as she was quite cynical about love and what was going on in the world. That was the only fault that I have with the book, as a character I found it hard to deal with her sometimes and the way she hated everything mainstream. Her character development happened pretty quickly for me, though that may have been intended when Noah came into her life, for me it just didn’t seem to sit well and was something that did bug me throughout the book. 

This book was amazing though and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a romance with a twist. It was completely worth the read and I cannot wait to get my hands on Holly Bourne’s next book. 

Rating: ★★★★

Book Review: The Geography of You and Me

Title: The Geography of You and Me 
Author: Jennifer E. Smith
Publisher: Hachette
Release Date: 15/04/2014
Pages: 353
Service: BookBridgr
Format: Paperback 
Buy: Book Depository
Author Twitter: @JenESmith

'Owen lives in the basement. Lucy lives on the 24th floor. But when the power goes out in the midst of a New York heatwave, they find themselves together for the first time: stuck in a lift between the 10th and 11th floors. As they await help, they start talking...

The brief time they spend together leaves a mark. And as their lives take them to Edinburgh and San Francisco, to Prague and to Portland they can't shake the memory of the time they shared. Postcards cross the globe when they themselves can't, as Lucy and Owen experience the joy - and pain - of first love.

And as they makes their separate journeys in search of a home, they discover that it is sometimes a person rather than a place that anchors you most in the world.' 

I have so many feelings about this book that I am finding it really had to fathom proper sentences for this review. So, here goes nothing. 

I had heard so many good things about this book and I really wanted to read it so when I saw it on BookBridgr it was one of those books I immediately requested and was so excited when it  I came home to see the package waiting on the table.

I loved both Lucy's and Owen's history in terms of everything they had gone through before meeting each other. You could see how these things ended up having a knock on effect to what was going on in their lives and minds at the time and that was really nice to see. You could actually understand why they were thinking certain things and for me, that made me feel a lot more in touch with the characters. There was a lot more room for empathy and there were so many times that I just wanted to hug Owen and tell them that everything was going to be okay and things would eventually fall into place. 

Another thing that made me fall in love with this book was how heavily both of character's parents were woven into the plot. I love reading YA fiction that shows the part that the parents play. By the end you could really see the way Lucy had developed in her relationship with her mother and even the small steps she was taking with her father. With Owen, you could see how him and his father just sprang off each other. They helped each other out and both just guided each other with decisions that the both of them had made. It was nice to see that father-son relationship in a book and it was really well written. 

It was a journey about Owen and Lucy of not only finding each again but also figuring out how to fix certain aspects of their lives that they didn't think were possible to fix. They're searching for each other and they're searching for a place that they can call home and just feel settled. My heart broke for Owen so many times throughout that book and I did really feel for Lucy and the situation she was in.

The whole plot of this book was based around Owen and Lucy, the only real sub-plots there were throughout the books were just where the relationship with their parents developed. So, if you want more than just a romance story, this may not be the best book for you. It is one of those reads though that is quite relaxing and you can just wind down to and take you time reading. 

There were some chapters in the book that were really, really short but I see why it was written that way. At times though, it did slightly annoy me but it's only for a small portion of the book that is quite easily to push past. That's the only real problem that I had with the book.

I love Smith's writing style though and I definitely I'll be picking up more of her books. I loved the banter between her character's and the way she described the cities and feelings of the characters. The ending of the book was something that I was expecting but it didn't bother me. I felt content with the ending. It just felt right with what happened and the way the book was finished off.

It's a feel good book that just shows you that fate brings people together for a reason. It's a story about how you can fall in love without even realising it 

If you are looking for a YA-romance-contemporary book then I really suggest that you read this book. I was in love with it from first page to last and it's a perfect book to sit and unwind to. 

Rating: ★★★★★

Thank you to Hachette publishing and Bookbridgr who sent me this book in exchange for an honest review. 

Movie Review: Letters To Juliet

Title: Letters To Juliet

Running Time: 105 minutes
Director: Gary Winick
Writers: Jose Rivera, Tim Sullivan 
Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Gael García Bernal, Vanessa Redgrave 

'An American girl discovers a love letter than changes her life in this romantic comedy, starring Amanda Seyfried and Vanessa Redgrave. The setting is Verona, Italy – this city where Rome and Juliet first met. In Verona, there’s a wall where they lovelorn leave notes, hoping that Juliet will answer their inquiries about love. Sophie (played by Amanda Seyfried) is a part of a team of volunteers who respond to the letters. When Sophie answers a letter from 1957, the woman who wrote it (played by Vanessa Redgrave) decides to seek out the one who got away, and romance starts to blossom all around.'

I had this movie for Christmas a few years back and it has never stopped being one of my favourite feel-good movies to watch. It’s the type of movie that makes you want to just sit and forget about everything else that is going on as you get engrossed in the beautiful streets of Italy. 

You watch all the characters develop within themselves and relationships and one of the nicest things about this movie is that you can see that it isn’t solely based on the romance but it’s also about the way you see both Sophie and Charlie grow as people separately and you can watch as they start to realise the things that they really want in life and why things have happened the way that they have. 

The whole scenery throughout the movie was absolutely amazing and put such a nice ethos to the movie. The soundtrack that was played throughout the background of the movie made me fall in love with it a little bit more. It fitted perfectly with the whole movie and had a romantic feel to it. 

Sometimes I find in movies there are always a few loose threads that they seem to forget to tie up, no matter how big or small, but this movie seemed to have made sure that it tied everything up and it was all consistent. 

The whole movie just showed you about how to let things go and move on from them. How to know when things just need to come to an end and have some closure. It shows you how to put yourself first as well and that it’s not a bad thing to do that. 

There were some parts of the movie though that I thought could have ran a bit smoother as it seemed a little choppy in some parts. Especially when they were switching between scenes. There were times as well that I felt as though the speech could have a ran a little better as well because there seemed to be some parts where the conversation didn’t seem to flow as well as it could have. 

Overall, I do absolutely love this movie. It’s one that I always go to if I’m not having a good day and can watch time and time again. 

Rating: