Letterbox Love (38)

Letterbox Love is a meme hosted by Lynsey @ Narratively Speaking for UK based book bloggers to showcase the books that they’ve received each week.

Hi guys! Here's my book haul for March so far and it's an exciting one! I've received so many of my most anticipated books of the year. My TBR is packed full of exciting books right now and I'm loving working my way through them.

I can't get over the irony of doing a 'Letterbox Love' post because my letterbox hasn't received a whole lot of loving lately. We've been given the postman from HELL. He's rude, my stuff turns up days late, if at all, I've had to email three publishers this month letting them know that the books they sent out for review have gone missing. Ugh. The other day I caught him walking off with a letter from my best friend. Good job I recognised her writing paper and stopped him to ask if it was mine. Seriously guys he is hopeless and as a book blogger it's so important to have a good postie. Right, now, with that vented let's get on to the books!

 Review Books

The Worst Girlfriend in the World by Sarra Manning (Proof Copy)
Yesss!!!! We're starting off with one of my most anticipated books of the year folks! I'm such a huge Sarra Manning fan and have been since my teens so I am hugely excited to have an early proof of her next YA novel.
Landline by Rainbow Rowell (Proof Copy)
If you know me at all you'll know that when this dropped through my letterbox there was plenty of happy dancing and squeals of excitement. Guys! Rainbow Rowell! I love her, I love her books, and I couldn't be more grateful at the chance to read this book early.
The Travelling Tea Shop by Belinda Jones (Proof Copy)
I've never read anything by Belinda Jones before but I love my foodie chick-lit and am looking forward to giving this one a go. I also love the pretty cover!
A Kiss in the Dark by Cat Clarke
Here be another one of my most anticipated books of the year! I adore Cat Clarke and her gritty contemporary thrillers and I'm so excited to read this soon!
Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan
Jenny is the queen of foodie chick-lit and is one of my favourite authors. I've been looking forward to this for ages and am looking forward to devouring it on a lovely spring day sometime soon.

 Bought Books

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski
This book is right at the top of my most anticipated books of 2014 list (are you guys seeing a pattern yet!?) and I had this on pre-order. The book itself is stunning with distressed page edges and I'm so in love with the cover. When I went to add this on Goodreads I noticed that every one of my friends has rated it 5 stars. Also there is a quote from Kristin Cashore on the back and I'm hoping that this will be the gorgeous fantasy novel that I'm hoping it'll be.
Maybe One Day by Melissa Kantor
I'd seen this one around and was interested in it but it was my friend Jasprit's review that finally convinced me that I need to read this one. I'm loving my emotional reads this year and am really looking forward to this!
Split Second by Kasie West
I adored the first book in this series Pivot Point and after that heartbreaking ending I have to know what's going to happen next! This is really high on my TBR right now! I need more from Trevor!
A Hundred Pieces of Me by Lucy Dillon
I've already read this one and am completely in love with it. There seems to be so many gems coming out in women's fiction this year and so far it's the genre where my favourite reads are coming from. I'll have a review of this up soon.
Just a Girl, Standing in Front of a Boy by Lucy-Anne Holmes
I picked this up to make up the 2 for £7 deal in Tesco along with A Hundred Pieces of Me. I've never read anything from this author before but everyone seems to be loving this book so I'm excited to check it out.

As always thank you to the lovely publishing folk for the review copies. If you decided to do a Letterbox Love, Book Haul, IMM, Showcase Sunday, Mailbox Monday or whatever else featuring the books you got this week leave me a link as I’d love to check out your books too! ^_^ 

 Happy reading till next time!

Review for Half Bad by Sally Green

Half Bad by Sally Green
Publisher: Penguin
Release: 3rd March 2014
Genre: Witchcraft, Paranormal, UKYA
Source: Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review




Synopsis: 

"You can't read, can't write, but you heal fast, even for a witch. You get sick if you stay indoors after dark. You hate White Witches but love Annalise, who is one. You've been kept in a cage since you were fourteen. All you've got to do is escape and find Mercury, the Black Witch who eats boys. And do that before your seventeenth birthday.

In modern-day England, witches live alongside humans: White witches, who are good; Black witches, who are evil; and fifteen-year-old Nathan, who is both. Nathan’s father is the world’s most powerful and cruel Black witch, and his mother is dead. He is hunted from all sides. Trapped in a cage, beaten and handcuffed, Nathan must escape before his sixteenth birthday, at which point he will receive three gifts from his father and come into his own as a witch—or else he will die. But how can Nathan find his father when his every action is tracked, when there is no one safe to trust—not even family, not even the girl he loves?"

Review 
I’ve been trying to decide how much I want to say about Half Bad and how much I want to hold back on. On the one hand I don’t want to set impossible standards in reader’s heads but on the other I want to be honest about how much I enjoyed this book. And so after a lot of thought I have a little secret to tell you…Half Bad gave me the Potter feels.

I imagine at this point you’re either getting terribly excited or rolling your eyes at the idea of a Harry Potter copycat and that’s where I want to come in and say that you couldn’t be more wrong. Half Bad is completely unique in its own right. With not a magical beast or wand in sight Half Bad surprisingly feels less fantasy and more realism as Nathan has to deal with many contemporary issues.

Half Bad is very much a coming of age novel only with powers and a civil war between witch kind. You have the white witches who are good, the black witches who are bad and Nathan a one of a kind Half Code who is both and so has never really fit in anywhere. With a white witch mother and a father who is the most powerful and hated black witch of all time Nathan is feared and shunned by the white witches who keep him locked up in a cage and run experiments on him.

One of my favourite things about Half Bad was how Sally Green blurred the lines between good and evil. The characters in this book are much more dimensional than their labels with some of the white witches being cruel and insatiable and some of the black witches showing kindness and loyalty to Nathan. There’s also the theme of Nature vs Nurture are we destined to become a certain way? Or do people who push labels on to us make it so?

The world building in this book was spot on. All the information we need is revealed as and when needed which is so much better than a massive information dump at the beginning of the story. The hidden world of the witches is a simple and believable one and the lonely Welsh countryside created the perfect atmosphere for Nathan’s story.

Overall Half Bad was a book that ticked all of the right boxes for me and I can’t find fault with it. Unique and compelling I closed the book with the feeling that I’d just read something truly special.

February Round Up and Book of the Month

February's Book of the Month is The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

I had a really tough time choosing between The One Plus One and Half Bad for my book of the month. Both were excellent in completely different ways! In the end I decided to go with The One Plus One because it had such an emotional impact on me. I love my emotional reads and even though it's been nearly a month since I read it I still can't get the Thomas family out of my head! This is my first 5 star read of the year and if you haven't picked up anything by Jojo Moyes yet I highly recommend that you do. To read more on my thoughts for this one check out my review here.

*** I loved the message of family in this book! *** 

Read in February 
11.) We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (3*)
12.) The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes (5*)
13.) Cress by Marissa Meyer (4.5*)
14.) Amy and Matthew by Cammie McGovern (4*)
15.) Fire and Flood by Victoria Scott (4*)
16.) Panic by Lauren Oliver (3*)
17.) Deeper by Robin York (3.5*)
18.) Half Bad by Sally Green (5*)

Monthly Book Awards
Best Plot: Half Bad by Sally Green
Best Writing: The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes
Best Cover: Fire and Flood by Victoria Scott
Best Characters: The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes
Best Ending: Cress by Marissa Meyer
Best Romance: Amy and Matthew by Cammie McGovern
Most un-put-down-able: Half Bad by Sally Green
Most Memorable: The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes
Best Moral: Amy and Matthew by Cammie McGovern

Top 3 Most Recommended Books: The One Plus One, Half Bad and Cress with a special mention to Amy and Matthew because I really did love that book too!

Books I’m Looking Forward to Being Released in March
The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas
Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan
The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski
Bad Brides by Rebecca Chance
Shattered by Teri Terry
Far From You by Tess Sharpe
The Time of Our Lives by Jane Costello
Trouble by Non Pratt

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

OCD, the Kindle and Me

Lately I’ve noticed that more and more publishers are relying on websites like Netgalley to get early proof copies to book bloggers. Recently I’ve been receiving more emails with a direct link to download an e-galley than I have with offers of a physical proof to read and whilst I think this is fantastic for a lot of reasons I couldn’t help but wonder if this is the way publicity is going in the future and how bloggers who don’t own or dislike e-readers feel about this new digital approach.

Personally I like my Kindle Paperwhite but I LOVE my physical books and really can’t see that ever changing. I have so many exciting books on my Kindle right now but they often get neglected in favour of physical books. In fact I’ll often be excited about an early e-proof for all of a day and then decide that I’d actually much rather wait and buy a finished copy which some people might think is a little crazy when I’m given the chance to read these books sometimes months in advance which brings me nicely on to a realisation I made the other day.

After thinking about this topic a lot over the last few weeks I realised that a large part of why I prefer not to read on my Kindle is because of my OCD. Part of my condition means that I have to do things as thoroughly and correctly as possible and when I’m reading on my Kindle I don’t feel like I’m getting the full reading experience. This is kind of silly when I’m quite happy to read proof copies that are subject to change but try telling my OCD that. I don’t get it either.

So after a lot of thought I have decided to make this year Project Learning to Love My Kindle. At the moment I tend to read one Kindle book per month (if that) and I’d like to start trying to up that to two or three books a month. I’m tired of not reading the books I want to read because I have this irrational fear of not reading the book properly. There are lots of pros for me personally for reading more on my Kindle and it’ll also help tackle an aspect of my OCD which can only be a good thing. I’m not saying that I want to become a full on Kindle advocate but if I can get to a stage where I feel like I can happily read what I want to on my Kindle that would be great.

If you’re a blogger who doesn’t own or dislikes e-readers I’d love to know how you feel about the rise of websites like Netgalley? Do you ever feel like you’re missing out on the latest thing? If you’re a publisher is there a future for paper proof copies? Or are you a reader who hates missing out on exclusive e-book short stories from your favourite authors? If for whatever reason you’ve ever missed out on reading a book due to a dislike of e-readers I feel your pain.

Early Bird Review for Amy and Matthew by Cammie McGovern

Amy and Matthew by Cammie McGovern 
Publisher: Macmillan
Release: 27th March 2014
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Source: Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review





Goodreads Summary: 

"Amy is unflinchingly honest about her limitations. Born with cerebral palsy, she can’t walk or talk without help. But trapped inside this uncooperative body lies a brilliant mind and a luminous spirit – a girl capable of truly loving and worthy of being loved in return.

Matthew has his own set of challenges – a mind consumed by unwanted repeated thoughts, obsessive rituals and a crippling fear that he can't explain. But underneath all of the anxiety lies a deep seed of hope for someone to come along who believes in him…

This is the story of Amy and Matthew. It may not be a fairy tale romance or set in an imagined world far from our own. But the love they share is real. And yes, there's magic in it."

Review 
My favourite kind of Contemporary YA books are the kind with real and imperfect characters, so this love story about a girl who has Cerebral Palsy and a guy with OCD sounded right up my street. I myself have suffered with OCD since my late teens so from a personal level I was looking forward to seeing how Cammie McGovern handled the illness in her story. Turns out this author really knows her stuff!

Amy and Matthew are two troubled teens who find each other just when they need someone the most and I loved following their evolving relationship. At its heart this book is about friendship which I found really refreshing to read. I loved how Amy and Matthew bettered one another and brought each other out of their shell. The mutual respect, trust and understanding of each other and their illnesses was really beautiful to read.

Matthew for me was a really relatable character. Cammie McGovern perfectly captures the anxiety and panic behind compulsive thinking and clearly has a solid understanding of what someone with OCD goes through on a daily basis. I found myself nodding along with Matthew and sympathising with his fear of everyday tasks that take a lot of mental strength to overcome.

I absolutely loved getting to know Amy - she’s incredibly bright and positive and has so much to offer if only people had the patience to see past her disability. Amy’s personality practically leaps off the page to the point where I’d often forget she had CP and how others perceived her because to me she was just Amy. Despite loving her positive attitude it was actually Amy’s more fragile and honest moments in the book that made me really admire her strength of character.

If you enjoyed Eleanor and Park, The Fault in Our Stars and The Perks of Being a Wallflower then I couldn’t recommend this book to you more. It certainly deserves the same recognition which is not something I say lightly with the books mentioned above being a few of my favourites. Amy and Matthew are certain to open reader’s eyes to the world of both physical and mental illness and work their way into reader’s hearts with their beautifully broken love story.