Review: London Belongs to Me

London Belongs to Me by Jacquelyn Middleton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a New Adult adventure with a Young Adult feel to it. For once it's more about life than sex, and that's by no means a bad thing - I love a good raunchy romp, but I also love to read the stories about people starting over, following their dreams and finding themselves. London Belongs to Me is the latter.

Alex is a wonderful character - a kooky fangirl who suffers with anxiety and panic attacks, she's easy to relate to and easy to love. She drew me into the story and made me want the absolute best for her. Alex isn't the only great character in this book though - Middleton has created a stellar cast, with a charming and sexy love interest, a strong and no-nonsense best friend (or two), and an evil bitch who you love to hate.

As a Brit it was strange reading about exploring London from a (half) American's point of view, but I think Middleton did well with the concept - I can see this book doing very well on both sides of the pond. She makes London and its residents very British, while still explaining the little UK idiosycrasies for US readers.

London Belongs to Me has all the markings of a great chick-lit for me. It's easy to read without being too fluffy, it has just the right combination of adventure, romance and strife, a relatable cast of wonderful characters and a great ending. A perfect debut from an exciting new author who I'll be following for sure.

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Review: The Thousandth Floor

The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just when you think everything's been done, a startling new idea comes along and shakes up a genre - The Thousandth Floor is that book, and McGee is that author. This amazing debut is sure to create a lot of buzz in the YA world, and rightly so. But what's it actually like? For starters, it's a backwards story - we're teased with an outcome first, then we're taken back to the beginning and led through the build-up, with secret upon secret slowly being revealed. Then there's the fact that McGee has somehow managed to give us a five-way POV without making it horribly confusing. When I saw the chapter titles and realised the book would focus on five different characters, I worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up, but it's actually very well-done. The five characters start of fairly separate, but as the book goes on they start to intertwine more and more, while they each give us an important aspect of the story. It's a risky tactic, but it pays off handsomly as McGee pulls it off with apomb.

Set in the future, we're given a delightful setting in the mega-huge tower, and it's a nicely-built world with realistic additions and revisions to our present. Complementing this futuristic world are the everyday problems of teenagers, families and friends, which will never really change. Fashions will change, but fashion will always be a thing. Love and friendship won't go away, and there will always be drama surrounding them. This is what McGee focusses on, and she does it remarkably well. I didn't expect this to be the first of a series when I read it - for some reason I was expecting a standalone, but then I got to the end, and it is a great end - no real cliffhanger, but an expectation of continuation. Book one is perfectly complete and incomplete at the same time, the ideal series opener. Roll on book two.

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Review: Melody Bittersweet and The Girls' Ghostbusting Agency

Melody Bittersweet and The Girls' Ghostbusting Agency by Kitty French
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Is paranormal chick-lit an oficial sub-genre? Because if it isn't, it should be, and Melody Bittersweet should be the reigning queen. I love, love, loved this book. It's funny, sweet, entertaining, exciting and perfectly British. Melody is one of the best characters I've read for ages, and I desperately want to hear more from her - can't wait until the next book in the series comes out. She's not the only brilliant character though - not by a long shot. French has created a whole cast of whacky, awesome characters to play with, and that's not even counting the ghosts! I'm now off to read everything else she's ever written...

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Review: How Not To Fall

How Not To Fall by Emily Foster
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is simply gorgeous. It feels like a real honour to have the chance to follow Annie along her sublime journey of sexual awakening with her incredible teacher, Charles. Foster's erotic scenes are written with consummate skill - never unrealistic or overdone, the are superbly arousing.

For a plethora or reasons, I couldn't put this book down. The characters are wonderfully well-developed, the story itself is highly addictive, and the sex scenes (yes I'm mentioning them again - they're that good) are beautiful.

I am in love with Charles and Annie's brains - their big, beautiful brains. There is so much that is so clever about this book, not least its main characters, that it blows me away. And then there's the feels - oh, the feels. After a period of glorious sexytimes, the feelings inevitably enter the circle, and then nothing is easy anymore.

The ending of this book is exactly what it should be, which is also what you don't want it to be. But fear not, there is another book to come, but not until 2017, because Foster apparently likes to torture her readers. Write faster!

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Review: Songs About a Girl

Songs About a Girl by Chris Russell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow. If you like music and you like YA, you have to read this book. I've been veering away from YA for a while, preferring something a bit more adult to entertain me, but this was the perfect book to return to the genre with. Russell's sixteen year-old Charlie is such a great character - she's so realistic, as are all of the other characters around her. This is a start cast, and not just because half of it is made up of a famous boyband. Russell gives us a glimpse of the hardships of fame, the realities of working in the music business, and the real people behind the stardom. There's a backstory running through the book that keeps it interesting too, one which raises some questions that are not yet answered so be prepared for a bit of a cliffhanger.
Full of excitement, sweet romance and drama between family and friends, Songs About a Girl is one of the best things I've read in a while and I hope the next book is released in a timely fashion as I really want to know what happens next!

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Review: Resurgence

Resurgence by Kerry Wilkinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Silver Blackthorne has to be one of my favourite YA heroines. She never wanted the life that's been thrust upon her. She doesn't want to be a hero, a figurehead, a call to arms. But her natural character, her deep care for those around her, her unerring moral compass, her inability to stand down against inequality all mean that she is the best person for the job.

The deep friendships are one of the things that struck me most in this series. There's a love triangle that annoyed me slightly because it seemed unnecessary, but by the end I realised that it was just Silver - what single guy can be around a girl like her and not become at least a little infatuated? But the friendships between the escapee offerings were what tied the whole story together.

The best thing about the long-awaited release of the end to this series? It meant I got to re-read the first two books. Wilkinson's dystopian world is a clever one, and one that I relished spending time in. His characters are the main draw though - from the fierce heroine to the evil Minister Prime, the whole cast of the trilogy are extremely well-developed and fall into their respective roles with consumate ease. And the plot is just crazy, in a good way. There are so many twists and turns that I never could have predicted, so much that needed to happen to make the brilliant ending work the way it needed to. Wilkinson is nothing short of a genius, and I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

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Review: You Know Me Well: A Novel

You Know Me Well: A Novel by David Levithan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I don't normally go for 'friends' books - usually I'm all about the romance. And although I'm Bi, I don't read LGBT books that often. Something about You Know Me Well spoke to me though. I don't know why - I'm most definitely not a teen living in San Fransisco. I'm a late-thirties woman living in rural England. But it made me wish I was a teen living in SF. I grew up in a very straight town, at a very conservative school, with no queer friends. I can't even imagine how freeing it must be to grow up in a place like SF, to have openly out people around you, to have the option of friends who know exactly how you feel. So for me, You Know Me Well was like the ultimate fantasy. And because it's David Levithan, it was so enjoyable to read on so many levels.

There's a certain whimsy to it, in between the very real issues that are dealt with, a joyfulness and a definite journey that we're lead on. Everything happens in a very short space of time, but the events are so big, so definitive, that it's fuller than many stories that take place over a whole lifetime. There's also questioning - of life, of the future, of the present, of love. No matter what age you are, there's always questions to be found, but at the tender age of 18, about to launch yourself on the world, there's a whole lot more.

What I think I loved the most though, was the characters. They feel so, so real. The have real flaws, they talk like real people, they practically jumped out of the page and into my living room. The way they interconnected, the almost visible ropes running from one to another, everything about them ensured I just couldn't put this book down.

You know how sometimes you come across a book, and it just stands out. You can't necessarily put your finger on why, you just fall right into love with it, and it becomes something special to you. This is that book for me. I hope it can be that book for you too.

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