Review for The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes 
Publisher: Penguin
Release: 27th February 2014
Genre: Fiction, Family, Romance, Chick-Lit
Source: Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review




Goodreads Summary: 

"One single mum
With two jobs and two children, Jess Thomas does her best day after day. But it's hard on your own. And sometimes you take risks you shouldn't. Because you have to...

One chaotic family
Jess's gifted, quirky daughter Tanzie is brilliant with numbers, but without a helping hand she'll never get the chance to shine. And Nicky, Jess's teenage stepson, can't fight the bullies alone. Sometimes Jess feels like they're sinking...

One handsome stranger
Into their lives comes Ed Nicholls, a man whose life is in chaos, and who is running from a deeply uncertain future. But he has time on his hands. He knows what it's like to be lonely. And he wants to help...

One unexpected love story
The One Plus One is a captivating and unconventional romance from Jojo Moyes about two lost souls meeting in the most unlikely circumstances."

Review 
Jess Thomas lives with her talented young daughter Tanzie, troubled teenage stepson Nicky and the large and loveable family dog Norman in a small seaside town but their life is far from the idyll that you’d imagine. Tanzie is a child genius who’d rather spend hours pouring over maths problems than playing with other children her age and Nicky is badly bullied for his love of mascara and skinny jeans. Their small town is one that is equally small minded and labels anybody who’s a little bit different a freak and for Jess and her family life is a daily struggle. That is until one day when wealthy business man Ed Nicholls comes into their lives and offers a helping hand and so they set off on a whirlwind road trip adventure that will change not only Jess’s life but Ed’s life for the better.

The One Plus One is a character driven read told from Jess, Ed, Tanzie and Nicky’s points of view. After a few chapters I quickly became immersed in this story, so much so that I devoured this 500 plus page book in two days. The Thomas family are such underdogs and I felt every emotion alongside them as we watch them struggle through life. I laughed, I cried, I got angry and I desperately wanted things to change for them. This book is about family, misfits, hope and the random acts of kindness from strangers that can make someone’s day a hundred times better. The One Plus One shines a light on those struggling with poverty in the UK and I loved seeing how wealthy Ed’s views regarding money gradually changed throughout the book as he got to see how the other half live.

I completely fell in love with every character in this book but I just have to give a special mention to our heroine Jess who not only is a wonderful mother but such an inspiring lady to read about. Jess is such a kind and hopeful character – when life knocked her down she’d get right back up again and I admired her so much. For all you romantics there is also a lovely slow simmering romance between Jess and Ed that develops throughout the book. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted two characters to get their happily ever after more!

Simply put The One Plus One is the best book that I’ve read in 2014 so far. If you like books about life changing road trips with a bright and eccentric cast of characters and a loveable furry companion to boot then I couldn’t recommend this book to you more! I laughed, I cried and a week after finishing I still can’t get the Thomas family out of my head!

Guest Post With Paige Toon: From Chick-lit to YA

Today we have the lovely Paige Toon on the blog talking about her new book (and first venture into YA!) The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson. Paige is a bestselling author of Women’s Fiction whose books include The Longest Holiday, Johnny Be Good and Pictures of Lily to name a few. The Jessie Jefferson series is a YA spin off from Johnny Be Good and Baby Be Mine featuring rock star Johnny’s estranged daughter Jessie. I recently read and really enjoyed The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson (check out my review here) so I’m excited to have Paige on the blog today discussing her journey from Chick-lit to YA. Without further ado please give a warm welcome to the brilliant Paige Toon!

From Chick-lit to YA by Paige Toon

A lot of people have asked me how hard I found it trying to get into the head of a teenage character. The truth is, it was easy. I have to get into the heads of all of my characters – how old they are isn’t usually a factor. Jessie was like my naughty, younger alter ego – I’m quite fond of her and I can’t wait to write part two of her story. This is the first time I’ve started writing a book which I know there will be a sequel to. Baby Be Mine is the sequel to Johnny Be Good, but it wasn’t until I was writing the final page, and an idea jumped out at me, that I thought, there could be more to this story. My fans demanded a sequel in the end – so many of them were cross at me for leaving it on that cliff-hanger. I do try not to do that with my books these days, so it was a bit of a challenge making the ending of The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson feel satisfactory for the reader while still leaving a lot of scope for the next book.

I decided to write young adult books after a friend and fellow author, Ali Harris, suggested it. I’ve dedicated Jessie to her. Ever since writing my debut novel Lucy in the Sky, I’ve written my books quickly. I wrote Lucy in two and a half months with a full-time job at heat magazine and I enjoyed every single minute. When I found myself with a whole year to write Johnny Be Good, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I ended up writing most of it in the last three months – with a newborn baby to boot. I just write better under pressure – and shorter deadlines help. Now my son is in school and my daughter is in nursery, I have so much more time on my hands. Why not fill it by doing something I love? I thought about releasing two adult books a year, but wasn’t sure if you guys would get bored of me. I love reading YA myself – especially sci-fi series, it has to be said (but isn’t Twilight effectively chick lit with vampires and werewolves?), and the idea for Jessie seemed to work even better as a YA series. I first had the idea to write about Johnny’s secret daughter when I was writing Baby Be Mine, and the idea came back to me when I was toying with YA.

At the time of writing this blog, The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson has already hit the shelves and lots of my amazingly lovely, loyal readers have been telling me how much they enjoyed it. After writing Lucy in the Sky, I was absolutely terrified about everyone I know reading it and passing judgement, but then I relaxed slightly and told myself that if anyone else feels the way I felt while writing it, then they’re going to love it. I can’t tell you how happy I was to get those first Amazon reviews from brand new readers. I still count it as one of the high points of my life. It’s been the same with every book since, so I felt quite chilled about Jessie because I was pretty certain my regular readers would enjoy it if how much I loved writing it was anything to go by. Now I’m dying to hear from some new teenage readers, so please let me know what you thought of the book on Twitter @PaigeToonAuthor and facebook.com.PaigeToonAuthor. I’ll be waiting with baited breath!

Thanks for stopping by the blog today Paige! I'm looking forward to seeing where Johnny and Meg's story all began and picking up Johnny Be Good soon! The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson is available in all good bookshops now.

Review for The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson by Paige Toon

The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson by Paige Toon 
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release: 30th January 2014
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, UKYA
Source: Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review





Goodreads Summary:

"My fifteenth birthday was the worst day of my life, and it's inconceivable to think that any single day in my future will ever be as bad. My mum was killed in a freak accident on her way to pick up my cake. Even when there was still no sign of her after two hours later, and my friends started to arrive at our house, it never occurred to me that she wouldn't be coming back.

That was six months ago. My mum died without telling me who my real dad was. And for a while I hated her for it. I thought she's taken the secret of my father's identity with her forever. But she didn't. Holy hell, she didn't. Because three weeks ago I found out the truth. And I'm still reeling from the shock of it. My dad is none other than Johnny Jefferson, mega famous rock star and one-time serial womaniser. And now I'm on my way to LA to meet him and his family. My tiny little world has just got a whole lot bigger…"

Review 
Jessie is a teenage wild child who’s been acting out ever since her mum’s unexpected death on Jessie’s fifteenth birthday. I have to be honest and say that Jessie didn’t make a good first impression with me – in fact I thought she was a bit of a brat with the way she treated people. But my advice is to stick with her folks! It soon becomes apparent that it’s all just a tough girl act to mask the pain and guilt she feels over her mum’s death and the fear that she doesn’t really belong to any one now that it’s just her and her stepdad Stu. Paige Toon did a fantastic job of capturing a young girl’s grief and those weaker moments with Jessie when her mask would slip and she’d let us in were some of my favourite moments in this book.

With Jessie’s behaviour spiralling out of control stepdad Stu thinks it would do her good to learn the truth about her real father who is none other than famous rock god Johnny Jefferson. When Jessie flies out to LA to get to know Johnny and her new family is where the fun really begins. There are A-list parties, designer clothes shopping, and yes, a cute boy. Whilst all this is really fun and glamorous to read about there are also some really touching moments as Jessie starts to bond with her family.

My favourite thing about The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson was how every character felt realistic. I could understand every characters thoughts and feelings over this big change in their lives and I loved that this book wasn’t all fun and smooth sailing in Jessie’s new life. Seeing how everyday things would trigger Jessie’s memories of her mum brought a tear to my eye on several occasions. And Jessie’s gradual character development was spot on to the point where I closed the book feeling really proud of how far she’d come.

Overall The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson was a lot of fun and had a lot of heart. I’ll definitely be continuing on with this series to see what happens to Jessie and her family next and I also want to pick up ‘Johnny Be Good’ Paige’s adult series to find out how Johnny and Meg’s story all began!

January Round Up and Book of the Month!

January's Book of the Month is Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

Side Effects May Vary was a book that despite its March release date I just had to read as soon as I received an e galley for review and as soon as I read it I just had to talk about it so I posted an early bird review here. Side Effects May Vary is the best cancer book that's not actually all that much about cancer since The Fault in Our Stars. This was an absolutely beautiful debut novel about life and second chances and if it's not already on your radar it should be!

Read in January 
1.) The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton (4*)
2.) Where The Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller (4*)
3.) The New Hunger by Isaac Marion (4*)
4.) Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken (3.5*)
5.) Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy (4.5*)
6.) A Breath of Frost by Alyxandra Harvey (3*)
7.) The Wish List by Jane Costello (4.5*)
8.) Mother, Mother by Koren Zailckas (4*)
9.) The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson by Paige Toon (3.5*)
10.) The Unbound by Victoria Schwab (4*)

Ten books read is an excellent start towards my 2014 100 books reading challenge on Goodreads and I'm two books ahead of schedule! I read some fantastic books this past month but am still waiting for my first 5 star read of 2014!

Monthly Book Awards 
Best Plot: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
Best Writing: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
Best Cover: Where The Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller
Best Characters: The Wish List by Jane Costello
Best Ending: The Unbound by Victoria Schwab
Best Romance: Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy
Most un-put-down-able: Mother, Mother by Koren Zailckas
Most Memorable: Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy
Best Moral: Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

Top 3 Most Recommended Books: Side Effects May Vary, The Wish List, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

Books I’m Looking Forward to Being Released in February 
Echo Boy by Matt Haig
The Dead Wife's Handbook by Hannah Beckerman
A Hundred Pieces of Me by Lucy Dillon
The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes
Cress by Marissa Meyer
Banished by Liz de Jager

What was the best book you read in January? And what are you looking forward to reading this month?

Review for Mother, Mother by Koren Zailckas

Mother, Mother by Koren Zailckas 
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release: 16th January 2014
Genre: Adult Fiction, Psychological Thriller
Source: Bought




Summary: 

"Meet the Hurst Family.

Meet Violet Hurst -16 years old, beautiful and brilliant. So why is she being accused of being a danger to herself and others? 

Meet her brother Will Hurst – the smartest and sweetest twelve-year old boy around. But does he really need all that medication he is being told to take?

Meet oldest sister Rose – the one who got away. She disappeared one night in her final year of school, never to be heard from again.

And then meet their mother – Josephine. Perhaps it will then all start to make sense."

Review 
Psychological Thrillers are an old love of mine but unfortunately I don’t read them as often as I used to. However, when I read the synopsis for Mother, Mother it sounded just like the dark and menacing read I was after and so after reading some glowing reviews for the book I decided to give it a try. Mother, Mother is the kind of book that crawls under your skin without you realizing it. It’s not the kind of thriller that’s fast paced and full of twists but rather one that makes you feel uneasy and suspicious of every character. It’s so compelling that it practically turns the pages itself as you dive deeper into the world of this deeply dysfunctional family and their twisted relationships.

The book is told from two of the Hurst children’s point of views with oldest daughter Rose having recently run away from home and escaping their mothers clutches. Will is a twelve-year-old autistic boy who has withdrawn so much from the world that his mother and her approval is all that really matters to him. Then there’s Will’s older sister Violet the middle child in the family who’s recently been sectioned in a mental health unit due to a crime against her brother that she has no recollection of committing.

Will and Violet are both such unreliable narrators that you’re never quite sure what to believe especially when the different accounts on their home life begin to clash. Trying to piece together exactly what’s going on in that household made captivating reading.

All members of the Hurst family are broken, flawed and interesting characters to read about. None more so than mother Josephine who really is the puppeteer behind their family and the perfect façade they show the world. I won’t say too much about Josephine other than she’s an incredibly clever individual who kept me guessing throughout the book. Is she the loving and attentive mother that Will adores? Or the deranged psychopath who is ruining Violet’s life?

The only thing that let this book down for me was the ending. I would have liked something a little more surprising and sinister to have taken this book to new heights.

Overall Mother, Mother was a chilling and thought provoking read that proves that you never really know what’s going on behind closed doors.