Review for Bunheads by Sophie Flack

Bunheads by Sophie Flack
Publisher: Atom
Release Date: 1st March 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Dance, Self-Discovery
Rating: 4/5 stars
Source: Received from the publisher for review

Amazon Summary:
''In a crowd of beautiful and talented dancers, how can one girl stand out?

As a dancer with the Manhattan Ballet Company, nineteen-year-old Hannah Ward is living her childhood dream. She gets to be up on stage in front of adoring crowds every night. And while she might not be a prima ballerina yet, she's moving up the ranks and surely if she works hard enough she can make it happen. But devoting her whole life to ballet leaves very little time for anything else: friends, family, school have all fallen by the wayside. Hannah doesn't mind, until a chance encounter in a restaurant brings Jacob into her life. He's cute, he plays guitar and he's offering a whole future that Hannah never considered. And now she must choose between her lifelong dream or what could be the love of her life...''

Review
Bunheads was such an indulgent read for me, I’m fascinated by anything to do with dance- despite not being a dancer myself- I love watching movies like Black Swan and Step Up, old childhood books like Ballet Shoes, and TV show dancing competitions. I love everything from the beautiful costumes and dramatic make up to the fairy-tale like sets to the art of dance itself. I’ve been to the theatre to watch ballet a few times and every time I get so caught up in the story that the ballerina’s tell with their feet and reading Bunheads was almost like watching one of those dances, it gave me the exact same feeling of enchantment, magic and excitement.

What I loved most about Bunheads was the behind the scenes feel to it. Author Sophie Flack danced with the New York City ballet for nine years before writing this book so she shares with us first-hand information on exactly what goes on behind closed doors and what goes into this kind of profession. Not only did I love reading about our main character Hannah and her friend’s performances but I also loved reading about a dancer’s life off the stage from the extreme and challenging rehearsals to the gruelling training and physio. I found the simplest things like how they get their shoes to fit them perfectly and all the different moves fascinating. The life of a professional dancer is fiercely competitive and I came away from this book with a newfound respect for dancers and the dedication and passion they have for what they do. Despite the gorgeous dresses and fairy-tale’s that they dance to the job is at times anything but glamorous and I loved this insider’s look on the life of a young dancer trying to stand out from the crowd.

Whilst this books main focus is on the world of ballet dancing it also has themes of romance, friendship, rivalry and self-discovery. Hannah is a really interesting leading lady to read about with her conflicting emotions about ballet and her journey as she tries to decide what she wants from life. I also loved the love interest in this book Jacob and wanted Hannah to be with him pretty much from the moment they met! I also really liked Hannah’s best friend Bea who was such a good friend to Hannah and didn’t let the pressures of trying to get noticed come between their friendship.

Overall I thought that Bunheads was a really unique contemporary read. This book made me feel like a little girl again devouring a magical ballerina story wishing all the while that I too could get all dressed up and dance with princes and feel like a princess every night. Sophie Flack captures the magic and beauty of ballet and transforms it to the page flawlessly. This was a gorgeous debut that has made me see the world of competitive dance in a whole new light!

Review for Someone Else’s Life by Katie Dale

Someone Else’s Life by Katie Dale
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release Date: 2nd February 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Contemporary, Family Drama, Romance
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Source: Received from the publisher for review

Amazon Summary:
"How can you face your future when your past is a lie? When Rosie Kenning's mother, Trudie, dies from Huntingdon's disease, her whole world falls apart. Not only does Rosie desperately miss her mum, but now she has to face the fact that she could have inherited the fatal illness herself. Until she discovers that Trudie wasn't her biological mother at all ...Rosie is stunned. Can this be true? Is she grieving for a mother who wasn't even hers to lose? And if Trudie wasn't her mother, who is? But as Rosie delves into her past to discover who she really is, she is faced with a heart-breaking dilemma - to continue living a lie, or to reveal a truth that will shatter the lives of everyone around her..."

Review
This book was pitched to me as Jodi Picoult for teens and with Jodi being one of my all-time favourite authors I just had to try this YA equivalent. Now that I’ve read Someone Else’s Life I would certainly agree with that statement, debut author Katie Dale writes an honest and moving account on hard hitting topics such as grief, and Huntington’s disease to name a few in this gripping family drama.

What I loved best about this book is that instead of focusing on friendships and relationships this books main focus is on family in all its glorious shapes and sizes. I found that really refreshing for a young adult book and whilst there was a brilliant love interest for our heroine Rosie in the form of Andy the boy that she loved and gave up as just one of the many sacrifices she made in order to become a full time carer to her mum whose recently died from Huntington’s. What I loved most was the focus on family and the lies we keep to protect those we love.

Katie Dale tackles a wide range of controversial topics and I loved the many layers to this book. Right from the start your thrown this massive curve ball in the plot and as you read on the problems just snowball there are so many twists and turns, the plot constantly changing and developing right until the final pages. I was gripped by the many secrets that make up Rosie’s life and found it impossible to put the book down.

Someone Else’s Life reads as part contemporary and part mystery and so offers something new and different to the YA genre. The book is told from Rosie and a mystery person’s perspective, I found Rosie to be a really strong inspirational heroine and right from the beginning I had a huge amount of respect for her for practically giving up her life in order to look after her mum. I also loved reading from the perspective of the mystery character, for the first part of the book, because I had no idea who they were and I loved trying to suss out the mystery behind that, and once they’re revealed because I found their point of view fascinating to read from and they actually ended up being my favourite character and who I connected with most.

I could talk about how much I loved this book and why all day but because its very mystery orientated I’ll leave it there as I don’t want to give away any spoilers! But if you’re looking for a book that makes you feel ALL THE THINGS you should check out Someone Else’s Life, Katie Dale is certainly an author to watch!

In My Mailbox! The Bumper Edition

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren

Before I start this week's IMM I just want to say I didn't get all of these books this week. This is a bundle from the last few weeks grouping some of my must read books, I got a few more than this but if I was to list them all we'd be here for a very long time! So here are some of my top picks from the last few weeks...

Review Books

I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella
A Walk in the Park by Jill Mansell
Fallen in Love by Lauren Kate
Never Coming Home by Evonne Wareham (ARC)
Heart-shaped Bruise by Tanya Byrne (ARC)
The Angel at No. 33 by Polly Williams

Hollow Pike by James Dawson (ARC)
Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Legend by Marie Lu (ARC)
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake (ARC)
Starters by Lissa Price (ARC)
Slated by Teri Terry (ARC)

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman (ARC)
Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
Heaven by Christoph Marzi
Ticket to Love by Marilyn Kaye
Bunheads by Sophie Flack
The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams

Bought

The House of Silk: The New Sherlock Holmes Novel by Anthony Horowitz
Two Truths and a Lie (Lying Game) by Sara Shepard
This is a Love Story by Jessica Thompson
The Storyteller by Antonia Michaelis
Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson

There you have it my HUGE haul of 23 books! As I said at the beginning I received and bought a few others but decided not to show the ones I’ve read simply because they’ve been featured/will be featured on the blog in a review. I’m so looking forward to all of these; I’ve been a very lucky girl! As always HUGE thank you’s to all of the lovely publishing people who have sent me these books to review. 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. Here’s to another week of fantastic reading ahead!

Review for Night School by CJ. Daugherty

Night School by CJ. Daugherty
Publisher: Atom
Release Date: 5th January 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Thriller, Mystery
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Source: Received from the publisher for review

Amazon Summary:
"Sometimes school can be murder. . . Allie Sheridan's world is falling apart. She hates her school. Her brother has run away from home. And she's just been arrested. Again. This time her parents have finally had enough. They cut her off from her friends and send her away to a boarding school for problem teenagers. But Cimmeria Academy is no ordinary school. It allows no computers or phones. Its students are an odd mixture of the gifted, the tough and the privileged. And then there's the secretive Night School, whose activities other students are forbidden even to watch. When Allie is attacked one night the incident sets off a chain of events leading to the violent death of a girl at the summer ball. As the school begins to seem like a very dangerous place, Allie must learn who she can trust. And what's really going on at Cimmeria Academy."

Review
First off I want to say that I had a real love/hate relationship with this book. I say this because the first 200 pages I couldn’t stand and the last 250 pages I loved and absolutely devoured. So I guess I’ll split this review into two parts the first talking about why I didn’t like the book and the second what I loved about it.

Okay so the book begins with our main character Allie being shipped off to boarding school after her third arrest of the year. My main dislike at the start of the book was with Allie, she acts out and hates her life and is basically your stereotypical rebellious teen. Allie really annoyed me at the beginning because of this, she was just so rude and arrogant and at times I wanted to throw the book at the wall she irritated me that much. Allie also makes a lot of bad choices at the beginning of the book the main one in my opinion was getting involved with Sylvain. Sylvain absolutely made my skin crawl he’s just such a slimy sleezeball and I just couldn’t understand what Allie saw in him. So at this point in the book I wasn’t connecting with Allie and I didn’t understand her choices and because of that I very nearly gave up on this book. However I was really enjoying reading about the school and the strange mysterious things that were happening there so curiosity alone made me read on.

Then the summer ball happened and that’s when this book really got interesting. The last half of this book I felt completely different about and it really made up for the first half. Cimmeria Academy is such a fascinating school with a lot of interesting history and hidden rooms, quirky staff and strange rules to boot. The mystery surrounding the school is really unique and I loved how different it was to anything else out there. In the last 250 pages there is so much action, danger and suspense that I couldn’t put this book down. And as for Allie well she really grows as a character and I liked her more as the book went on. I also loved the new relationships she made with Carter and Rachel who are much nicer more likeable characters than the first set of friends she makes at the school.

So although I had my problems with this book at the beginning by the end I ended up really liking it, so if like me you have trouble getting into this one it’s definitely a book I’d recommend sticking with. Overall Night School is a unique and interesting debut and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next with this series.

Review for The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release Date: September 27th 2011 (US edition) releasing in the UK on March 1st 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Thriller, Mystery, Romance
Rating: 4/5 stars
Source: Bought

Summary:
"Mara Dyer doesn't think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.

She's wrong."

Review
I was so excited to read this book as I’m a huge fan of Young Adult thrillers and with THAT cover, THAT synopsis and the amount of praise from some of my favourite authors (Cassandra Clare and Veronica Roth to name a few!) I had really high expectations for this book.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer grips you straight away with a mysterious letter to the reader from Mara Dyer herself and a thrilling first chapter. During the beginning of this book I was completely swept away in the mystery surrounding who exactly Mara Dyer is and Michelle Hodkin’s beautiful atmospheric writing. However I felt that during the middle of this book the pacing really slowed down as the book started focusing more on the growing relationship between Mara and Noah. Don’t get me wrong I loved the romance to the story, fans of smart ass, dark and dangerous bad boys like me are going to fall hard for Noah Shaw. The best way I can describe Noah is he is what you would get if you mixed together Jace from The Mortal Instruments and St Clair from Anna and the French Kiss. I loved following his and Mara’s deliciously twisted romance but I couldn’t help but feel that the focus switched off the plot and on to them too often which really slowed down the pacing so the middle to me read more like a contemporary romance than a heart pounding thriller.

At the end the book took another U- turn and we were flung back into the darker more suspenseful side of this book which is the side I loved best. Some of the twists I guessed but others took me by surprise and then something HUGE was revealed right at the very end finishing the book on a gigantic cliff hanger that left me dying for the sequel. Seriously Michelle Hodkin I tip my hat to you as the new queen of cliff hangers!

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is a captivating and twisted love story that is in equal parts as disturbing and dark as it is beautiful and poetic. Whilst this isn’t the best young adult thriller out there I can’t deny that this book has something unique and exquisite to add to the genre and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.