Review for Sugar and Spice by Lauren Conrad

Sugar and Spice is the last instalment in the L.A Candy series. These books have been my sweet little guilty pleasures this year and although they may not be the best pieces of literature they keep me entertained which for me is the main thing. The L.A Candy series follows a year in the life of a group of young, L.A girls who have launched to fame through a hit reality TV show. These books are semi autobiography, semi fiction based on author Lauren Conrad’s time on MTVs hugely successful reality series The Hills. In Sugar and Spice things pick up where Sweet Little Lies left off. After recently being betrayed by supposed friend and co-star Madison, Jane’s fast learning who she can and can’t trust now that she’s living under the spotlight. Whilst the tabloids are trying to create a rivalry between the girls all Jane wants is to cut her frenemies out and take back control of her life and normality, but normal is hard to achieve when you’re the nations sweetheart and your ex-boyfriend from back home comes creeping out of the works. Add on top of that Jane’s current L.A crush Brandon and life proves to be just as dramatic off screen as it is on. Meanwhile Jane’s best friend Scarlett is having some boy troubles of her own. Her new boyfriend Liam is the guy of her dreams, sweet, kind and down to earth Liam has no interest in appearing on L.A candy – which would be perfect if the bosses of the show didn’t keep trying to set up flirtatious scenes between Scarlett and guys who are willing to appear on the show causing Scarlett’s real reality to come crashing down. As season 2 gets ready to air it looks like the girls have some big decisions to make about their lives on and off set but can both reality and reality TV ever co-exist smoothly alongside each other? What I love about the L.A candy books is that there’s never a dull moment. There’s always plenty of drama and backstabbing to keep you turning those pages and the characters of Jane and Scarlett are really admirable. If you haven’t read these books you may be lead to believe that it’s about blonde, ditzy, wannabes chasing fame in L.A and whilst there are some characters like that in the books the main characters Jane and Scarlett are nothing like that with Jane being a down to earth girl next door type and Scarlett an intelligent, ambitious, natural beauty. These girls are real and very relatable and likeable and it’s so entertaining seeing the girls trying to deal with being big stars in L.A and all the fakes and drama that comes along with it. On top of everything this series gives a very insightful look into reality TV and what really goes on behind the scenes in these shows told by a girl who’s experienced it all first hand. I’ve enjoyed these books a lot, there perfect light hearted escapism on days when I just wanted something fun to read. I thought Sugar and Spice was a great ending to a great series overall but I was a little disappointed by Jane’s love interest outcome especially because I liked a certain guy in particular but other than that I thought it was a perfect ending. Scandalous, dramatic and highly entertaining this is the perfect series to get lost in. The literary equivalent to a hot bubble bath and a glass of wine. Sugar and Spice will be loved by The Hills fans, reality TV show junkies and teenage girls everywhere. 3.5 stars. My Rating 3.5/5 stars ***1/2

200 Follower Giveaway!

As some of you may know from my happy tweets on twitter I recently reached over 200 followers! So to celebrate I thought I’d do a giveaway exclusive to my followers to thank you for all being so supportive and wonderful to me. Unlike my last contest this will be open internationally because I have a lot of followers from all over the place so it’s not fair to only include some of you. The books are from the UK though so you may not recognise them so I’ve included a description for you all so you can find out what there about . Read on for more details! Boys Don’t Cry by Malorie Blackman In Boys Don't Cry, bestselling author Malorie Blackman explores the unchartered territory of teenage fatherhood. You’re waiting for the postman--he’s bringing your A level results. University, a career as a journalist--a glittering future lies ahead. But when the doorbell rings it’s your old girlfriend; and she’s carrying a baby. You’re fine to look after it, for an hour or two, while she does some shopping. Then she doesn’t come back and your future suddenly looks very different. Malorie’s dramatic new novel will take you on a journey from tears to laughter and back again. Department 19 by Will Hill In a secret supernatural battle that's been raging for over a century, the stakes have just been raised – and they're not wooden anymore. When Jamie Carpenter's mother is kidnapped by strange creatures, he finds himself dragged into Department 19, the government's most secret agency. Fortunately for Jamie, Department 19 can provide the tools he needs to find his mother, and to kill the vampires who want him dead. But unfortunately for everyone, something much older is stirring, something even Department 19 can't stand up against… Please note that both books are ARC’s not finished copies. Boys don’t cry will be out in the UK October 28th 2010 and Department 19 31 March 2011- Department 19 is so new I don’t even have a finished cover to show you guys yet! Both sound like really brilliant books and one winner will receive both. Contest is open internationally but note that you do have to be a follower of my blog to enter. The winner will be checked up on and if that person is not a follower a new winner will be drawn. Rules

• Open Internationally
• Followers of this blog only
• Contest ends Monday 25th October
• ONE winner will be chosen by random.org
• The winner will be contacted via e-mail, and will be given 48 hours to respond. Otherwise, a new winner will be drawn
• Your details will only be used if you win

Now for your chance to enter please fill in the form, good luck! This Giveaway is now closed and a winner has been announced.

Raised by Wolves WINNER!

The Winner of a Signed copy of Raised by Wolves is…Amanda! Congratulations Amanda! I will be sending an email to you shortly, you will have 48 hours to reply else another winner will be chosen. Thank you to everyone who’s entered this contest. I’ll be hosting my 200 followers giveaway shortly so make sure you keep your eyes peeled for that!

In My Mailbox! Book week of awesome!

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren Hey guys, I have had one of my most favourite weeks for books this week. I got some really great books some I’ve been pining over forever! So excited to read all of these and show you guys so let’s get onto the good stuff! Bought Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales Stork by Wendy Delsol The Twin's Daughter by Lauren Baratz-Logsted Her and Me and You by Lauren Strasnick Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick The Scorch Trials by James Dashner Borrowed/ For Review The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting Department 19 by Will Hill Trash by Andy Mulligan So that’s what I got this week. I’ve only just realised that the books I bought are all hardcovers! I adore the covers for Mostly Good Girls and The Twins Daughter there so pretty! And I’m so excited for Crescendo and The Scorch Trials because I loved Hush Hush and The Maze Runner. I just want to say a big thank you to Rhiana from Rhiana-reads for letting me borrow her copy of The Body Finder very excited to read that one soon especially with Halloween coming up! And a big thank you to harper collins for sending me a SIGNED ARC of Department 19 and to Random House for Trash. If you’ve read any of the books I got this week and want to leave me a comment letting me know what you thought please do and make sure you leave me a link to what you got in your mailbox this week. Here’s to another great week of reading ahead! Psst! In other news I’ve recently reached over 200 followers and so am doing a giveaway exclusive to my followers internationally. One of the prizes will include an ARC of Department 19 which I got a duplicate of this week so if you’re interested in that remember to follow and pop back soon, it should be up over the next couple of days and in the meantime if you’re a UK blogger you can enter my Raised by Wolves giveaway, but hurry as it ends tomorrow! Good luck!

Review for Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Revolution is the highly anticipated second novel for young adults by Jennifer Donnelly. I read and adored Jennifer’s first novel A Gathering Light when it very first came out at the young age of 14 now 6 years later after a long, painful wait I got the chance to read and review Revolution early much to my delight! At the beginning of Revolution we’re introduced to cool, incredibly talented Andi a teenage girl living in present day New York. Andi goes to a prestigious private school for talented students and Andi’s talent is music. It would seem that Andi has the world at her feet with endless opportunities available to her, it seems like she has it all, and she did but that was before her younger brother Truman died in an accident that Andi believes is her fault. Since Truman’s death Andi’s family has been slowly falling apart with her mother going insane and her father leaving the family for a younger woman who’s pregnant with his child. Drowning in guilt and depression Andi turns to her music to express the thoughts and feelings she cannot say. Andi loses all interest in anything else but her music and risks flunking out of school because of it. Her father - oblivious as to what’s going on in his old life - doesn’t realise anything’s wrong until he gets a call from Andi’s school saying that if she fails her thesis she won’t graduate. With her mother in a mental health unit and her father flying out to France to work on the mystery of the Lost Dauphin Louis-Charles, Andi has no choice but to go with him. It’s in Paris that Andi stumbles upon a lost diary belonging to a girl of her age Alex who worked in the palace looking after Louis-Charles during the French revolution. Captivated by Alex’s story and confessions instead of turning the diary in Andi reads on intrigued by the similarities between herself and Alex, Louis-Charles and her brother Truman, and what follows is a page turning historical mystery merging both girls’ fates together. When I started this book I thought it was good but not brilliant. It took a while for the story to really get going for me. It wasn’t slow exactly but it just took a good chunk of the book for Jennifer Donnelly to set the story up. However when you get further into the story you see that the book needed that set up so if you’re struggling with it I urge you to continue reading because it really is vital to the story and when Andi goes to Paris that’s when the book really starts to get going. It was from that point on that I simply could not put this book down. I think that I expected the historical part of the book to start straight away and the first 50 or so pages read very much like a contemporary young adult novel rather than historical fiction so I think that’s why I didn’t enjoy it as much as the rest of the book. If you expect that from the beginning though then I don’t think you’ll have a problem. I don’t think main character Andi’s the most likeable character out there but she definitely grew on me as I carried on reading. She may not be kind and perfect but she’s real and that’s why I liked her. She loves, she hates, she’s definitely one of the most realistic characters out there for young adults at the moment and I loved her passion for music. Throughout the book you get to read little snippets of Andi’s favourite songs and her own music and they really give a gateway into how Andi’s feeling. Jennifer Donnelly’s characters all have so many layers to them both good and bad. They have depth. Their human, and because of that Revolution felt very real to me like this was really happening which I think is an aspect you really need when re-telling a part of history. As with Jennifer’s first novel A Gathering Light, Revolution is flawlessly written. You can tell that Jennifer’s a born storyteller and a beautiful writer – you so easily get wrapped up in her words. I lost track of time on so many occasions because I was so engrossed in this book. It’s powerful, beautiful, mesmerising and fascinating. I went into this book not knowing that much about the French revolution and I admit that I was a little wary that I wouldn’t enjoy it or understand what was going on but I was so wrong. You don’t have to go into this book knowing all of the facts because it explains everything you need to know along the way without it reading like a history text book - in fact quite the contrary. I was so fascinated by the French revolution Jennifer tells its story so well and I’m going to definitely be looking out for more books on the subject in the future. This book made me feel so many things; the book itself is so many things. It’s love and grief, life and death, good and bad and I became so emotionally attached to it that I lost count of how many times I got teary eyed whilst reading. Sometimes because I was sad sometimes because I was happy sometimes because of the sheer beauty of Jennifer Donnelly’s writing. You definitely get taken on a journey whilst reading Revolution. Jennifer really brings the French revolution to life. Not only did it feel like I could see and smell everything that was going on around me but I could feel what the characters were going through I could feel their pain and their bloodlust their need for revenge and change. This book has everything love, passion, hate and lessons that are just as current now as they were during the revolution. There are so many important things that this book has to say. It will change the way you think and feel without even trying to. Revolution is the kind of book that will be read and loved by everybody because it has so many things to offer but above all Revolution is a story about doing the right thing, the good thing, forgiveness and moving on. It’s about the revolution that we all have inside ourselves over some thing or another. The revolution that’s still going on. After finishing this book yesterday afternoon I’m still thinking about it, it’s still all going through my mind. It’s haunting like the ghost of the revolution itself. Revolution is one of the best books I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading and I think it’s my favourite book that I’ve read so far in 2010, it’s definitely been worth the wait for all these years! Start reading this with the highest of expectations and you still won’t be disappointed - not one bit. Highly, highly recommended to everyone. 5 stars. My Rating 5/5 stars ***** Thanks go to Bloomsbury for sending me this book for review. Revolution is out NOW in all good bookshops across the UK and US.