Review for Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall

Under Rose-Tainted Skies 
by Louise Gornall
Publisher: Chicken House
Release: 7th July 2016
Genre: Contemporary, YA
Source: Copy received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review



Synopsis:

"Agoraphobia confines Norah to the house she shares with her mother. For her, the outside is sky glimpsed through glass, or a gauntlet to run between home and car. But a chance encounter on the doorstep changes everything: Luke, her new neighbour. Norah is determined to be the girl she thinks Luke deserves: a ‘normal’ girl, her skies unfiltered by the lens of mental illness. Instead, her love and bravery opens a window to unexpected truths …"

Review 
Under Rose-Tainted Skies is a book that I was completely taken aback by, it puts every little thought or feeling that I’ve ever had since living with anxiety down on to paper in the most magical way. It’s a book that I have a strong, personal connection with and it has found a special place in my heart.

The book follows a girl called Norah who is housebound due to agoraphobia and severe anxieties. Louise Gornall captures those feelings of panic and fear perfectly, describing Norah’s mental health problems so eloquently to the reader but what made this book stand out to me was that not only is the anxiety and agoraphobia depiction spot on, but the author goes one step further and shares Norah’s personal thoughts and feelings towards her mental illnesses with such honesty.

Norah worries about being judged and how other people see her, she struggles with feelings of being different and weird, there is frustration there and sadness at missing out on life and also concern about her loved ones worrying about her. Under Rose-Tainted Skies not only seamlessly captures the symptoms of Norah’s mental illnesses but also what it means to actually live with them and how it affects your sense of identity – especially as a young person trying to figure out who you are and your place in the world.

I loved how Under Rose-Tainted Skies showed how having a mental illness can impact so many different aspects of your life. Norah really struggles with relationships and letting people in and I was happy to see that didn’t change and that her mental illnesses didn’t suddenly vanish as soon as she met her love interest Luke. Instead this book took a realistic approach showing how Norah struggled to maintain their relationship. Norah never did anything she wasn’t ready to and Luke respected the boundaries put in place by her illness, only ever gently encouraging her progress. I really appreciated the honest representation of their relationship, it was never smooth sailing and neither was Norah’s recovery process. As she moves forward there are still bumps in the road and setbacks to overcome yet she continues to dust herself down and try again.

Under Rose-Tainted Skies is an incredibly special and important book that I’m sure I’ll be raving about for the rest of the year. Unflinching, honest and quietly hopeful it’s an absolute must read for anyone living with, or who is affected by, mental health (which means all of us, right?)

June Round Up and Book of the Month

June's Book of the Month is The Graces by Laure Eve

Choosing June's book of the month was really difficult because out of the seven books I read last month, four of them were 5 star reads and are some of my favourite books of the year so far. Out of those four brilliant books I finally settled on The Graces simply because this book is so unique and like nothing else out there on the YA market right now. It's dark and gothic and beautifully written. I'll be sharing my review for this closer to publication date and can't wait for everyone to discover it when it's released in September. If you love the movie The Craft this is one book you wont want to miss!

Read in June 
63.) The Graces by Laure Eve (5*)
64.) The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena (3.5*)
65.) Sunshine Over Wildflower Cottage by Milly Johnson (4.5*)
66.) What's a Girl Gotta Do? by Holly Bourne (5*)
67.) You Know Me Well by David Levithan and Nina LaCour (5*)
68.) The Fire Child by S.K. Tremayne (3.5*)
69.) Paper Butterflies by Lisa Heathfield (5*)

Monthly Book Awards
Best Plot: The Graces by Laure Eve
Best Writing: You Know Me Well by David Levithan and Nina LaCour
Best Cover: The Graces by Laure Eve
Best Characters: What's a Girl Gotta Do? by Holly Bourne
Best Ending: Paper Butterflies by Lisa Heathfield
Best Romance: Paper Butterflies by Lisa Heathfield
Best Friendship: What's a Girl Gotta Do? by Holly Bourne
Most un-put-down-able: The Graces by Laure Eve
Most Memorable: Paper Butterflies by Lisa Heathfield
Best Moral: You Know Me Well by David Levithan and Nina LaCour

Top 3 Most Recommended Books: The Graces, Paper Butterflies, What's a Girl Gotta Do? AND You Know Me Well because I can't choose between these four amazing books anymore.

Books I’m Looking Forward to Being Released in July
Songs About a Girl by Chris Russell
Saga Volume 6 by Brian K. Vaughan
Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty
Lying in Wait by Liz Nugent
I Found You by Lisa Jewell
Watching Edie by Camilla Way
I See You by Clare MacKintosh
Nothing Tastes As Good by Claire Hennessy

 What was your favourite book of June? 

 And what are you looking forward to reading in July?

Following Evan Blog Tour: Top 5 Places to Write

Welcome to my stop on the Following Evan blog tour! Today I am sharing the top 5 places that author Elida May likes to write and find inspiration.

1) Grandma’s garden in Albania
This was a place I used to write and read in when I was young. I used to go to the end of the garden and hide between the flowers. I would forget myself for hours there and wouldn’t stir until my grandma, Nadira, called me from the kitchen window, reminding me to eat. Nadira lived in the countryside in a beautiful stone cottage surrounded by a large and beautiful garden. I liked to spend a lot of time there during the long summer holidays and I enjoyed the company of the chickens, rabbits and the cat, whom I named Lula. She was white with a big, brown patch on her head.

2) My bedroom
These days I live in London, which is a world away from Grandma’s garden, and there is always background noise. At home, therefore, the place to write is my bedroom. In the daylight I have the window open and can see the sky, while at night I find it inspiring to look out at the stars.

3) My favourite coffee shop
I often escape to Muss Café to indulge in a spot of people-watching. Because I spend too much time indoors reading and writing, I like the fact that this café is a 30-minute walk away from my home.

4) My kitchen
I like to sit in here at my big, wooden table with a cup of steaming coffee next to me.

5) The park
I live in a flat so I don’t have a garden, but luckily I have a park nearby that I like to spend time in. Sometimes, I’ll even visit when it’s raining because then I know that it’s likely to be just me and the trees.

Don't miss the rest of the blog tour!

Bookshop Blog Tour: Reviews for How to Find Love in a Bookshop & Astley Book Farm

Today I’ve teamed up with Orion and the Books are my Bag campaign to bring you a special post all about bookshops! I’m reviewing the new novel by Veronica Henry, How to Find Love in a Bookshop and am also featuring my own local independent bookshop Astley Book Farm for Independent Bookshop Week.

How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry 
Publisher: Orion
Release: 16th June 2016
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Source: Copy received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review



Synopsis:

"Nightingale Books, nestled on the high street in the idyllic Cotswold town of Peasebrook, is a dream come true for booklovers.

But owner Emilia Nightingale is struggling to keep the shop open. The temptation to sell up is proving enormous - but what about the promise she made to her father? Not to mention the loyalty she owes to her customers.

Sarah Basildon, owner of stately pile Peasebrook Manor, has used the book shop as an escape from all her problems in the past few years. But is there more to her visits than meets the eye?

Since messing up his marriage, Jackson asks Emilia for advice on books to read to the son he misses so much. But Jackson has a secret, and is not all he seems...

And there's Thomasina, painfully shy, who runs a pop-up restaurant from her tiny cottage. She has a huge crush on a man she met and then lost in the cookery section, somewhere between Auguste Escoffier and Marco Pierre White. Can she find the courage to admit her true feelings?

How to Find Love in a Book Shop is the delightful story of Emilia's fight to keep her book shop alive, the customers whose lives she has touched - and the books they all love."

Review 
I’m a sucker for books about books so I couldn’t resist How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry. This is my first book by the author and it won’t be my last! I loved this charming tale of a family owned bookshop set in a Cotswold town.

Julius Nightingale lives and breathes books, after the death of his young wife he’s a single father bringing up their baby daughter Emilia alone. He opens a bookshop ‘Nightingale Books’ and creates a happy home full of stories for his daughter. Julius’s warmth and passion for books soon draws in the bookish locals looking for some escapism and therapeutic advice from the kindly bookseller.

Thirty years later and Julius’s untimely death leaves a gaping hole in the local community. After inheriting the book shop, Emilia struggles financially to keep it open and running – but books have a special way of leaving a mark on our hearts and those Julius has touched over the years with his recommendations are determined that Nightingale Books isn’t going down with a fight. Can a community of book lovers save their beloved bookshop?

How to Find Love in a Bookshop follows a large cast of characters. As well as Julius’s chapters set in the past and Emilia’s chapters set in the present, we also follow the town’s locals whose lives Nightingale Books has touched in some way. I really enjoyed reading about how books bought these characters together and loved how their individual stories tied in with the main plot. Julius was by far my favourite character, he was such a sweetheart and I felt the impact of his death just as much as the characters in the book. He’s everything you want in both a bookseller and a friend.

Any book lover will enjoy spending time in Nightingale Books, the independent bookshop that is the beating heart of this story. It’s everything you envision a good bookshop to be. I wanted to crawl inside of the book and spend hours exploring this little shop.

How to Find Love in a Bookshop is a wonderful story that shares a special message with its reader about how books have the power to bring people together. It’s a celebration of reading, bookshops and booksellers demonstrating how it only takes one story to change your life forever.

Follow the rest of the blog tour!

Astley Book Farm 

A Playground for the Bookish 

I am lucky enough to live a ten minute drive away from Astley Book Farm – the largest second hand bookshop in the Midlands and home to 75,000 books. Situated in the beautiful Warwickshire countryside it’s the perfect place for book lovers to escape the hustle and bustle of city life in favour of a day amongst books.

The bookshop itself is far bigger than one might expect, you can easily lose an entire day getting lost in a maze of books as you wander the shops corridors. The bookcases are crammed with books new and old, ranging from popular bestsellers to out of print rarities. The décor is homely and rustic with old books propped along the ceiling beams, funny and inspirational decorative quotes hang on the walls and a squishy armchair can be found around every corner to tempt customers to snuggle up and read for a while.

Once you’ve finished perusing the main shop floor, there is a separate Children’s Hayloft where young readers can discover the joys of a good bookshop for the very first time. Back outside there’s the Ten Bob Barn, a treasure trove of mismatched books selling for a mere fifty pence each. It’s the perfect place to get lost for anyone who loves a good rummage around looking for hidden gems.

Every book lover knows that book shopping is hard work and the onsite coffee shop is the perfect place to sit down and read with a nice cup of tea and a doorstop slice of one of their delicious fresh cakes. The coffee shop also extends out into the garden so that customers can enjoy a light lunch in the sunshine during warmer seasons.

With friendly, knowledgeable staff and enough books to last even the most avid reader a lifetime, Astley Book Farm is a truly special bookshop with a huge amount of personality. Whether you’re visiting on a daytrip with friends or just stopping by to find your next great read Astley Book Farm is a playground for the bookish with something to offer every reader.

Check out Astley Book Farm's website here for more information

Follow them on Twitter and Facebook

Blog Tour: The Fire Child by S. K. Tremayne

Welcome to my stop on The Fire Child blog tour! I absolutely loved S.K. Tremayne's book The Ice Twins and can't wait to read The Fire Child. If like me you can't wait to read this book then you're in luck! Today I'm sharing with you a teaser extract to whet your appetite just in time for the books release on the 16th June.

The name stings a little, though I hide it.

Nina Kerthen, née Valéry. David’s first wife. I don’t know much about her: I’ve seen a couple of photos, I know she was beautiful, Parisienne, young, posh, blonde. I know that she died in an accident at Morvellan Mine, eighteen months ago. I know that her husband and in particular her son – my brand-new, eight-year-old stepson Jamie – must still be grieving, even if they try not to show it. 

And I know, very very clearly, that one of my jobs here in Carnhallow is to rescue things: to be the best stepmother in the world to this sad and lovely little boy.

‘I’ll have a look,’ I say brightly. ‘At the books. Maybe get some ideas. Go and catch your plane.’

He turns for a final kiss, I step back.

‘No – go! Kiss me again we’ll end up in the fourteenth bedroom, and then it will be six o’clock.’

I’m not lying. David’s laugh is dark and sexy.

‘I’ll Skype you tonight, and see you Friday.’

With that, he departs. I hear doors slam down long hallways, then the growl of his Mercedes. Then comes the silence: the special summery silence of Carnhallow, soundtracked by the whisper of the distant sea.

Picking up my phone, I open my notebook app.

Continuing Nina’s restoration of this huge house is not going to be easy. I do have some artistic talent to help: I have a degree in photography from Goldsmiths College. A degree which turned out to be utterly pointless, as I basically graduated the same afternoon that photography collapsed as a paying career, and so I ended up teaching photography to kids who would never themselves become photographers.

This was, I suppose, another reason I was happy to give up London life: the meaninglessness was getting to me. I wasn’t even taking photos any more. Just taking buses through the rain to my cramped and shared Shoreditch flat. Which I couldn’t actually afford.

But now that I have no real job, I can, ironically, apply these artistic gifts. Such as they are.

Armed with my phone I begin my explorations: trying to get a proper mental map of Carnhallow. I’ve been here one week, but we’ve spent most of that week in the bedroom, the kitchen, or on the beaches, enjoying the blissful summer weather. Much of my stuff from London is still in boxes. There’s even a suitcase left to unpack from our honeymoon: our gloriously hedonistic, sensuously expensive trip to Venice, where David bought me his favourite martini, in Harry’s Bar, by St Mark’s Square: the gin in a shot glass, chilled nearly to ice ‘and faintly poisoned with vermouth’, as David put it. I love the way David puts things.

But that is already the past, and this is my future. Carnhallow.

 Don't miss the rest of the blog tour!