Review: The List by Joanna Bolouri

Published by: Quercus
Release date: 10th April 2014 (first published 5th Dec 2013)
Series: n/a
I got it from: NetGalley
Goodreads summary: Phoebe Henderson may be single but she sure doesn't feel fabulous. It's been a year since she found her boyfriend Alex in bed with another woman, and multiple cases of wine and extensive relationship analysis with best friend Lucy have done nothing to help. Faced with a new year but no new love, Phoebe concocts a different kind of resolution.

The List: ten things she's always wanted to do in bed but has never had the chance (or the courage!) to try. A bucket list for between the sheets. One year of pleasure, no strings attached. Simple, right?

Factor in meddlesome colleagues, friends with benefits, getting frisky al fresco and maybe, possibly, true love and Phoebe's got her work cut out for her.

My review:
Oh my giddy aunt, I bloody LOVE Phoebe! I want her to be my best friend. The List was a serious test of my willpower - I wanted to devour it in one sitting, but I also couldn't bear for it to end so I had to ration myself and only read a bit at a time.

It's chick-lit, but the really good type. It's not all namby-pamby romance and twee middle-class shenanigans. It's hilariously irreverent, bravely bolshy, brilliantly lewd and has one of the highest feel-good factors I've ever read. Seriously, this book put me in such a good mood. Improved my sex life too! Oh yes. The List has the best approach to sex. It approaches it as an adult, but one who's not a mire of hang-ups. It says 'Let's be grown up about this. Sex feels good, and if you step a little out of your comfort zone you'll probably find it can feel even better!' It's not erotica - there's too much comedy for that. It's raunchy and fun though.

I've decided I like books that are split up into a number of things. 16 Things I Thought Were True was another recent good read, and 13 Little Blue Envelopes was another. It's not that I need an easy paint-by-numbers story, it's just that there's just something fun about progressing through the list. Maybe I'm a list geek. Also, it's set in Glasgow, but not in a gritty, Trainspotting type way. More a modern-but-down-to-earth city sort of thing. And don't worry, it's not written in a phonetically Scottish way or full of unpronouncable slang, either. It's just Scottish in an excellent sense of humour, ballsy and outgoing way.

Now up until this point I was only about two thirds of the way through the book. I was just so excited about it that I had to write about it. I have to admit that after that point it did go a bit more standard chick-lit, but it was still really good. I just had to read faster because I couldn't leave it alone when things weren't going exactly as I wanted. Of course if it was all plain-sailing it wouldn't really by much of a story, so that is in no way a criticism. Actually, I've been reading a lot of New Adult and Young Adult angst lately, and it was so refreshing to read about people who aren't recovering from some horrific loss, abuse or sudden discovery of magical powers. 

What's actually astounding is that it appears to be a debut novel. I went onto Goodreads to look up and obtain everything else Bolouri has ever written, because I'm obsessed with her, and it turns out there is nothing else. Get writing, woman! I need more of your books!

Review: Real Vampires Don't Sparkle by Amy Fecteau

Published by: Curiosity Quills Press
Release date: 8th June 2013
Series: ?
I got it from: Netgalley
Goodreads summary:
Matheus Taylor didn’t ask to be murdered.

To be fair, the percentage of people actually asking to be murdered is probably small enough to be safely ignored, but he felt it was worth stating regardless.

His life might have been ordinary, but it was his life and he wasn’t done with it yet. Quin didn’t care. A seventeen-hundred old Roman, Quintus Livius Saturnius had a different view of morality than most people. Killing Matheus and hijacking his undead existence seemed perfectly acceptable to him.

Now, Matheus spends his nights running for his life, questioning his sexual orientation, and defying a mysterious new threat to the vampires within his city. Not that he set out to do any defying; he just wanted to be left alone.

Unfortunately, that was never going to happen.

My review:
This book has the feel of a self-published. This isn't a bad thing, although the editing could do with a bit of work. It's just that it has a very different kind of voice from your bog-standard main-stream publisher's offerings. It's unusual to find this level of sarcasm for a start.

Real Vampires Don't Sparkle isn't really my usual kind of book. Yes, I'm partial to the blood-sucking monsters, but I don't usually go for homoerotica. I found the relationship between Matheus and Quin very interesting though. The whole 'I'm not gay, I'm not gay, acutally...' thing is something of a mystery to me - all of the gay people I know have always known what they are, so the concept of suppressed sexual feelings is a new subject for me.

The humour running through the book kept it quite light, despite the often dark scenes. I have to admit though that I did find the constant stream of sarcasm and pithy come-backs a little wearing after a while. I began to wonder if any of these people ever say what they really feel. I can completely understand the use of wit and sarcasm as a defense mechanism, but I think you do need a bit of straight forward honesty from time to time, and there isn't really enough of that in this book.

RVDS is very much a dialogue-led book. There is a story in there, with a good dose of action, adventure and danger, but it's the dialogue which drags it along at a cracking pace. I would have been interested to hear a bit more of Quin's history, although he doesn't dwell on it himself so perhaps sharing it with the reader would have little point.

Reivew: The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

Goodreads summary:
Pat Peoples has a theory that his life is actually a movie produced by God, and that his God-given mission in life is to become emotionally literate, whereupon God will ensure a happy ending – which, for Pat, means the return of his estranged wife Nikki, from whom he's currently having some 'apart time.' It might not come as any surprise to learn that Pat has spent several years in a mental health facility. When Pat leaves hospital and goes to live with his parents, however, everything seems changed: no one will talk to him about Nikki; his old friends now have families; his beloved football team keep losing; his new therapist seems to be recommending adultery as a form of therapy. And he's being haunted by Kenny G. There is a silver lining, however, in the form of tragically widowed, physically fit and clinically depressed Tiffany, who offers to act as a go-between for Pat and his wife, if Pat will just agree to perform in this year’s Dance Away Depression competition... 

My review:
This review is a bit of a departure from the norm for me - I usually review YA books. However I do read adult books too, and if I come across one sufficiently arresting, I'm going to include a review on here. Adults read and enjoy YA books, so there's no reason why young adults shouldn't read adult books - they do it in school all the time, after all. 

Silver Linings is, to put it simply, a great book. It's the kind of book where you have a good idea of what the ending is going to be like, but a whole bunch of stuff happens along the way which you couldn't possibly guess at. Now, I realise this book has been made into a film, but I haven't seen it yet, so I read the story with fresh eyes and I'm going to assume anyone reading this will be too. After all, if you've seen the film you don't really need a review of the book. 

It's not that often I read a book that's told from a male point of view, so this was interesting for me. I've read books that deal with mental health issues before and I always find them intriguing, as I think it can be very difficult to understand someone else's mental issues if you haven't experienced something similar yourself. It's impossible to imagine the detachment you can feel from your own mind unless you have been through it. Books like Silver Linings go a long way to helping people to get an inkling of what goes through people's minds when they are troubled though. 

Pat Peoples chronicles his life in a simple and charming way. Often very funny, often touching and more than a little uncomfortable, Silver Linings reads like an in-depth diary. Starting on the day when Pat is released from 'the bad place' and moves back in with his parents, we see how he begins to cope with living in the real world again, talking to family and friends, meeting new people and interacting in public. His relationship with his parents, who have their own problems, is portrayed very well, and the sessions with his therapist are just brilliant. Then there's Tiffany. The slow and amazingly awkward build-up of the relationship between Pat and Tiffany, two very damaged characters, is a wonderful thing. 

There's something very real about this book. The characters feel real. That's kind of a weird comment to make, but I'm hoping you know what I mean. Sometimes the characters in a book are quite obviously just that - characters. They can be lovable without being particularly realist, which is often a part of their charm. Quick's characters are real though - you get the feeling that this could easily be a true story, There are ups and downs, twists and quirks. The ending is perfect.