What I've Been Reading Lately

 

 

Lately, as always happens in the Summer months, I've been whizzing through my reading list and getting to all the books that I missed out on reading during the exam period. I thought I'd do a round up of all my recent reads, since most of them are typical beach books that I know we all search for during the holiday period.

 

Boy Most Likely To - Huntley Fitzpatrick

This is quite possibly my favourite of the bunch, so its a great place to start. I don't want to give too much away, since the shock of the storyline was what made it such an interesting read. It's a brilliant poolside love story about a 17 year old guy who leaves home and moves into his best friend's garage, and sparks up a romance with his BFs older sister. There is a huge plot twist pretty early on that shapes the story, but I'll leave that to your discovery. This book is a solid 5/5 for me, I sped through it and loved reading Tim and Alice's unconventional love story. It also has lots of appearances of the characters from her other two novels, and carries on from them in a way, so it might be a good idea to read those too.

 

All The Bright Places - Jennifer Niven

This one is a little bit heavier, as it deals with ideas about depression, suicide and family loss. Theodore is a tricky character, weighed down with the burden of mental health, and Violet is struggling to find meaning in a world where her sister no longer exists. Its a love story of sorts, but what made this so beautiful to read is the friendship side to it; the romance is gripping, but the healing process that evolves with Violet as she meets Theodore is what really drew me to this story. I would say its a 4.5/5, purely because the ending wasn't what I was hoping for, but that's more of a personal frustration than a fault with the book itself.

 

We All Looked Up - Tommy Wallach

I've got to be honest and admit that this book wasn't up my street. The basic gist of the book is that an asteroid is headed towards Earth, and its pretty much a sure thing that the world is going to be hit. From my first interpretation of this book after picking it up in Waterstones, I expected it to be about this group of people who make the most of their time left, an uplifting 'you only live once' kind of thing. It's actually a lot darker than that, based around humanity's reaction to such a tragedy, and the result of cities spiralling out of control. It's an interesting read, but not what I expected, and the ending left me feeling so dissatisfied that I'm going to give this a 2/5. (But, it does have a blogger in it, so that's definitely one reason to at least give it a go.)

 

Beautiful Broken Things - Sara Barnard

This is a flipping great book, so I'll start off by saying 5/5. I finished this on the same day that I started it, and I literally couldn't let myself put it down. This one is about two best friends (Caddy and Rosie), and the differences a new friend makes to their friendship. It's so heart breaking and real, and again, this book took a direction that I wasn't expecting, but in this story it completely worked, and it gave dimension to what I thought might turn out to be a petty storyline. It tackles difficult topics, and has such amazing character development, whilst still remaining true to reality and the situations we could actually encounter in our own lives. I don't want to give anything away, but you need to pick this up - plus, the cover is beautiful (who doesn't love a bit of gold foil?!) This is one of the books in Zoella's book club I think, meaning that you might be able to get it at a reduced price, which is a bonus.



 

Think Twice - Sarah Mlynowski

This is an easy read, following on from the first book in which a group of students in high school get their flu jabs and as a result, develop the potential to read minds. In this one, they begin to lose their ability one by one and have to adjust to becoming normal people again - its an entirely hypothetical situation, but it has its funny and endearing moments, and is just the kind of book you reach for to pick yourself up out of a reading slump. Its not the best book I've ever read, I'd say a 3.5/5, but the story is intriguing and the characters are relatable, which is always a winning combination.

 

The Crown - Keira Cass

Keira Cass is one of my favourite authors, and to get this copy of the final book in the Selection series was so exciting. If you haven't heard me ramble about this series before, its basically a book in the style of the Bachelor, where the Prince/Princess has to choose from a group of suitors. I know how it sounds, and I was sceptical at first, but its so captivating and I read the entire first three books in three days. The final two books are set after a time jump, and are based on the choices of the Princess, who is actually the child of the matched couple in the first three books, if that makes any sense at all. It's a fairy tale love story, possibly the best series I've ever read, and this one was a brilliant ending to the storyline (5/5.)

 

The Siren - Keira Cass

This is another of her books, based around the idea that the Ocean requires 'Sirens', beautiful girls who lure humans to the water with the sound of their voices. Sirens can't speak to humans on a personal level due to the damaging effects of their voice, and this book surrounds a Siren who falls in love with a human, despite the fact that her contract with the Ocean is binding and the love could never work. What I found most interesting about this book was the personification of the Ocean, who almost acts as a Mother to the Sirens and has a relationship with humanity - its odd to think about, but the story captured me from the word go and as always with Cass' books, a solid 5/5.

 

What have you been reading lately?