What's A Girl Gotta Do? by Holly Bourne

What’s A Girl Gotta Do? – Holly Bourne

Read Jan 19 - Library

So, I seem to be reading the Spinster Club books out of order. I did read the first one first but now I’m reading the third one second. Not that is actually matters. (Although apparently Goodreads thinks I’ve read the second one but while I've rate if I haven’t reviewed it and I can’t actually remember anything… Although sometimes there’s a glitch where marking a book ‘To Read’ moves it to your ‘Read’ shelf.)

Anyway, this is another important feminist book because it highlights what so many women and women-appearing people go through everyday with sexism. Lottie is determined to fight back and call out all the sexism she sees, but at what cost? I loved Lottie’s grit and can-do attitude and the way she refused to give up, even when hounded by internet trolls and going against her parents and schools wishes. She was also real and human and had had doubts and made mistakes and was just relatable.

5/5 stars

Stef Out x

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth

The Miseducation of Cameron Post – Emily M. Danforth

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read Jan 19

I wanted to like this book much more than I actually did. I can’t deny that it is important in showing how anti-gay attitudes harm teens and that conversion camps are dangerous. Content warning related to this of a child badly self-mutilating himself due to the teachings of the camp.

It was incredibly well-written and detailed, and the characters were all well-rounded but overall, I wanted less and more at the same time. Less laggy pacing and over-describing, less drug stuff – call me a stick in the mud but I’m anti-drug. My main ‘more’ wish is more of an ending. It just stops. I also wanted to see Cameron having a happy, open relationship.

3/5 stars

Stef Out x

Brave Enough by Kati Gardner

Brave Enough – Kati Gardner

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read Jan 19

This book was beautiful and real and genuine and heart-breaking! It is so rare for there to be a book about teenage illness that has the main characters survive (I’m looking at you TFIOS)! Cason is a prima ballerina studying at a top conservatory under her strict, distant mother – the director. All she knows is dance until an injury that’s not just an injury puts a stop to everything. She has bone cancer.

On the ward she meets Davis, a cancer survivor who is back on the ward volunteering as a community service type thing whilst struggling to overcome drug addiction. The pair meet and slowly manage to help each other. This was so accurately written and reading the author’s notes at the end you realise why – she too has survived childhood cancer.

5/5 stars

Stef Out x

Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier

Jar of Hearts – Jennifer Hillier

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read Dec 18

So, this is the convoluted story about Georgina, her high school best friend Angela who disappeared, her dodgy older boyfriend Calvin and their adjacent friend Kaiser. The story jumps around a lot going back and forth in time, skipping time, random chapters from a different point of view and parts named after the five stages of grief.

When Angela’s body is discovered near her house Georgina is convicted of… Being an accomplice? Withholding evidence? I can’t remember now, but she’s sent to a very unrealistic prison where everyone lives in one room. She does eventually get out so the story can progress, some of the twists were not hard to work out, other points were just a bit strange.

3/5 stars

Stef Out x

Missing Pieces by Laura Pearson

Missing Pieces – Laura Pearson

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read Dec 18

For some reason I thought that this was a thriller book. As it is, I’m not sure how to categorise it. Linda is expecting a new baby. It will be her third daughter, that is until the worst happens. Linda is devastated and struggles to cope with new baby Bea.

Twenty-five years later Bea is pregnant herself and determined to find out the truth about her family’s troubled past before having her own child. I enjoyed the book, especially Bea’s growing relationship with her sister, but overall the plot moved a little too slowly. There were sections where not much happened at all.

3/5 stars

Stef Out x

Nobody Real by Steven Camden

Nobody Real – Steven Camden

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read Dec 18

So, it’s obvious by now that I can take a while to review books. Usually I can remember major plot points, but I couldn’t remember much about this one. You have Marcie who has just finished university and isn’t sure what to do especially as she’s dealing with her scatter-brained single dad. You also have Thor, the human/bear hybrid that is Marcie’s imaginary friend who is due to be ‘deleted’ soon as a result of being forgotten. At least until he decides to be remembered and starts interfering in Marcie’s life.

Other than that, there was some stuff about a kitten and a weird moment at the beginning where Marcie hugs a female friend and is thinking about their breasts pressing together (not a typical female thought gay or otherwise) but nothing more is ever said about it or Marcie’s sexuality.

Overall just a very odd book and I wasn't sure what to make of it. The premise is very inventive though so I will give Steven credit for that.

3/5 stars

Stef Out x

Friendship Fails of Emma Nash by Chloe Seager

Friendship Fails of Emma Nash – Chloe Seager

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read Dec 18

I didn’t realise on requesting this book that it was a sequel to an existing book which I haven’t read. It didn’t matter much as everyone is easy to get to know. My rating increased as I went, at first, I found Emma’s voice annoying, but I soon got used to it and even came to appreciate her frankness about things like masturbation. I also really liked the growing friendship she had with Gracie. Emma seriously needed to lighten up on the making friends thing though, she went way too overboard… Overall a light, breezy, fun book.

4/5 stars

Stef Out x

The Definition of Us by Sarah Harris

The Definition of Us – Sarah Harris

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read Dec 18

Perfect character driven road trip story! The characters are so well-written and well-rounded and real and amazing! Everything is developed slowly, we know that Florence has depression and anxiety but not immediately why, the others are revealed as we go: Jasper has an eating disorder, Andrew has Autism Spectrum Disorder (why that automatically needs therapy is unclear to me) and Wilf has ADHD and anger issues, not to mention a serious fear of ending up like his family, he has his own dreams.

The group are united by their therapist, Howard, but when he goes missing, they are compelled to try and find him. I loved their conversations and how they interacted. Also, it was a small thing, but I loved Florence’s thing with words, collecting pretty ones etc.

5/5 stars

Stef Out x

All Rights Reserved by Gregory Scott Katsoulis

All Rights Reserved – Gregory Scott Katsoulis

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read Dec 18

I can confidently say that this is one of the most unique books I’ve ever read! The idea of charging for the words we speak is so unusual and frighteningly possible. The world-building and how everything is so connected is astonishing and I commend the amount of work that went into it.

The world was so incredible that some of the characters fell a little flat, our main character Speth in particular. I’d like to see a non-verbal character written right and this wasn’t it. Speth was just not very smart and made some very poor decisions including betraying one of her few friends.

4/5 stars

Stef Out x

I Never Lie by Jody Sabral

I Never Lie – Jody Sabral

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read Dec 18

I will start by saying that it seems like every female thriller main character is single, desperate for a child and has a drinking problem. It’s boring and I want to see it less! As for the actual plot it was interesting and held my attention, but it wasn’t exactly exciting.

I wish we had seen more of Sarah’s story, the snippets we heard were very interesting. In fact, several of the side characters were more interesting than Alex. The ending like many thrillers was weak and seemed incomplete. Also are blackouts really that much of a thing? That you can do that much and seriously not remember? It seemed a bit of a stretch to me.

3/5 stars

Stef Out x

Just Don't Mention It by Estelle Maskame

Just Don’t Mention It – Estelle Maskame

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read Dec 18

So, I haven’t read the series that this accompanies but now I want to! I just want to give Tyler a massive hug for what he went through! I do feel like after the sort of trauma he went through that there should be some kind of mandatory counselling to help him at east start to deal with what happened,

The flashback chapters were heart-breaking, and the later ones made me start to tear up. Tyler also didn’t seem to have any genuine friends to care about him until Eden. Well, someone called Dean was sort of around but not enough to notice. Tiffani was a psycho and needed to be called out on her crap sooner.

4/5 stars

Stef Out x

The Universe is Expanding and So Am I by Carolyn Mackler

The Universe is Expanding and So Am I – Carolyn Mackler

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read Nov 18

Virginia is a fat character! She is fat and proud and confident when he family would make it so easy for her not to be. Heck none of the people around her seem to be particularly there for her over a difficult summer. Byron’s rape situation is handled fairly sensitively but there is a ‘money can fix anything’ kind of vibe around it.

I loved Anais and her “love is love is love” attitude, I wish her character could have been explored more. I loved Sebastian though! He was small and sweet, and he loved Virginia for who she was, curves and all! They had a great relationship. Overall sweet but short and there didn’t seem to be a clear ending.

4/5 stars

Stef Out x

Final Draft by Riley Redgate

Final Draft – Riley Redgate

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read Nov 18

This one was amazing! I love reading books about writers and this one is one of the best! I love Laila! She was so relatable in her obsessiveness, her lack of confidence and just ahh! The representation was amazing – Laila was biracial Ecuadorian who describes herself as pansexual (brief fist-pump yes! Moment), one friend is Brazilian, and another is a Korean lesbian! It just makes my heart sing.

I also loved Laila’s relationship with her teacher, it was so sweet the way he supported her unconditionally. I appreciate that Nazarenko encouraged her to push herself but her behaviour within that worried me, especially the way she cut her friends off. I did love the ending though! Squee!

5/5 stars

Stef Out x

Too Close by Natalie Daniels

Too Close – Natalie Daniels

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read Nov 18 

I thought that this was an interesting book, but it seemed confused in places. I really liked Connie and definitely sympathised with her. I enjoyed the fact that the story was revealed slowly although the differing points of view were slightly confusing, and I wasn’t sure as to the relevance of Dr. R’s (Emma) chapters.

It seemed a part of Connie’s hospital stay and seeing Emma was to judge if she was fit to stand trial but then that wasn’t mentioned. She had a diagnosis slapped on her and then the book kind of ended rather weakly. I also didn’t feel like the daughter’s diary added much beyond a vague connection to home for Connie.

3/5 stars

Stef Out x

Killer T by Robert Muchamore

Killer T – Robert Muchamore

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read Nov 18

This book is confused. The blurb places a lot on a virus that kills 90% of people yet in the book this is all a minor event in the background. The main story follows Harry a wannabe journalist and Charlie who gets sent to juvvie for setting off a bomb that while she did make it, she didn’t plant it. The pair meet by chance and Harry falls hard.

We then follow the pair through their teens as they mature and eventually couple up. Charlie with her work in gene therapy was by far the most interesting character. Harry ended up kind of boring. The time jumps were annoying and always happened on a cliff-hanger. Overall this book could have gone so much further and just fell flat.

3/5 stars

Stef Out x

Song of Blood and Stone by L. Penelope

Song of Blood and Stone – L. Penelope

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you

Read Nov 18

The world-building in this was fantastic and so immense! At times though all the information was a little overwhelming and I’d need to put the book down for a bit. Also, as detailed as it was bits felt like the were missing. Jasminda is an outcast due to her darker colouring and assumed to be from a different area but we’re never told why.

The Earthsinger thing is really interesting and different and I liked Jack, he was kind and noble and somewhat naïve in an adorable way. Also, hella sexy love scene! Also beware attempted rape scene earlier in the book. My main criticism is that the relationship was too happy and the main plot was rather slow, lots of waiting and travelling.

4/5 stars

Stef Out x